Red Like Blood
by sangheilitat117
Summary: Red like roses, red like blood. Weiss is a vampire, Ruby a vampire hunter. Vampires are hated and hunted by humans, and humans are hated and hunted by vampires. The world is cruel and cold and evil. But love can still be found, even in the most unlikely of places. Even in the midst of hatred.
1. Prologue - Red like Dusk

Ruby crawled through the snow on her stomach, shifting her weight back and forth to produce as little sound as possible. Vampires had superhuman hearing.

She was wearing a mottled brown cloak over the rest of her traveler's clothes. Partly to provide another layer against the bitter chill of winter, and partly to contain her scent. Vampires had a superhuman sense of smell.

She pushed low-hanging tree boughs and frosted bushes out of her way as she crawled. The snow made her clothes wet in places. The howling, screeching wind stung her face. Her fingers and toes had gone numb a long time ago. Several times the ornate wooden scythe and heavy crossbow on her back caught on tree branches and got tangled in bushes. Still she crawled, as low to the ground as possible. Vampires had superhuman eyesight.

She made her slow, steady way through the underbrush of the forest, until it suddenly gave way to an impossibly high cliff edge. Far, far below and off in the distance lay the barrow-crypts of Horondar. Nothing but indistinct, grey shapes on the horizon. You could see for miles and miles from up here. She crawled several feet to her right, where a prone figure in a heavy brown cloak lay.

"Geez Ruby, took you long enough," Yang chuckled. A few strands of golden-blonde hair poked out from the hood of her cloak. Her purple eyes glimmered in the dusk.

"Oh shut up," Ruby hissed in reply. "And keep your voice down. They could hear us."

"What, from all the way over there?" Yang pointed forward and down, where, nestled into the steeply descending cliff side, was an ancient and decrepit stone castle. "C'mon, they have great hearing yeah, but it's not _that_ great."

"You never know," Ruby muttered.

Yang patted her on the back. "It'll be fine sis. They have no idea we're up here. They won't know what's coming."

Ruby sighed and took a good look at their surroundings. The cliff face below them that descended to the castle was steep, but not sheer. A person – if they were careful – could probably make their way down without being spotted or heard. Or, they could misplace a step and come tumbling down into a coven full of starving, bloodthirsty vampires.

The only other way in was the main gate, which could only be raised from the inside. And the only way to that gate from the outside was across a flat stone causeway with no railing of any kind and a hundred foot drop on either side. It was more of a bridge really. And anyone coming across it would be spotted by the vampires inside.

Ruby sighed again. The sky was dark, menacing and deep red. The sun had finished setting, but its light had not quite died yet. A heavy mist hung about the castle. Snow covered everything. It was the recipe either for a perfect raid or the worst kind of disaster imaginable. They were a long way from home. Anyone wounded would likely die up there on the mountainside.

"Are the others ready?" Yang asked.

Ruby shuddered in the frigid wind. "Y-Yeah. Orson got everyone together in a little hollow in the woods. Got them to set up makeshift shelters and everything, but no fires."

"Right, the vampires would see the firelight when night falls."

"Right. Weapons got checked too. Some needed repairs after how far we've come. Some poor guy dropped his crossbow _and_ his sword down the cliff on the way up here. Luckily someone brought an extra."

"Wait, he dropped both?" Yang sounded incredulous. "Like I understand losing your crossbow if it's on your back and you stumble or something, but your sword should be strapped into your hip sheath and... oh man. This ambush is gonna go wrong, isn't it?"

Ruby was quiet for a few seconds before speaking. "No, I think it'll work actually. There's only a few fresh hunters in the group. Most are actually veterans. Some have been hunting vampires for dozens of years. Honestly, if we play this right, I think we can wipe this coven out with very few casualties."

"Always the strategist," Yang chuckled. "How many of them do you think there are?"

Ruby frowned and looked at the castle again. "With a castle that size, I'd say no more than twenty or thirty. We have forty seven hunters. The odds are definitely on our side."

"Yeah," Yang agreed. "Hmm. What if they have a ghost-walker though?"

"Sheesh, be realistic Yang. We haven't seen one of those in years. They're a dying breed. Trust me, this'll work out."

Yang chuckled. "I guess you're right. We've come way too far to turn back now anyway. Orson did incredible to track them this far up into the Downfalls."

"After what they did to that village we found," Ruby growled, "I would have made him track them to the ends of the earth. I'm just glad we finally found their lair, or whatever this place is."

"Yeah," Yang whispered, suddenly deadly serious. "They're gonna pay for that."

"They're gonna pay for everything. And for what they did to Mom..." Ruby whispered back.

"For everything," Yang agreed. "Come on, let's get back down to the camp. Soon as sunrise hits they'll be blind as bats while their eyes adjust. It's the perfect time to do this."

Yang started crawling backwards, moving away from the cliff side and back into the underbrush high up in those lonely, desolate mountains.

Ruby hesitated a few seconds. "For mom..." she muttered into the frigid, howling wind. Bitter memories, cold as the wind, flashed through her mind.

Then she started crawling back as well.

* * *

The sun rose low, ruddy, and red over the lonely Downfall mountain range. Ruby stood where she had the night before, high on the clifftop overlooking the rocky slope that steeply descended towards the vampire coven's fortress.

"This is a stupid plan," Ruby muttered to herself. "Stupid stupid stupid. How did Yang even convince me to do this? Why is she so stupid? Why am _I_ so stupid?"

She grit her teeth, tightened her grip on the wooden haft of her ornate scythe, and waited for the signal. She had been waiting for the past half-hour, and her nerves were starting to wear at her. It was just as cold as it had been during the night before, when the loose alliance of vampire hunters had huddled together in makeshift shelters in the lee of fallen pine trees. The only thing she could be thankful for now was that the sun was directly behind her and rising fast, and that vampires had a terrible time seeing in bright sunlight. So long as she didn't move too much, they wouldn't be able to tell her silhouette from that of the trees behind her.

She gazed down at the castle the vampires inhabited – and had most likely stolen. They might have just found it empty and abandoned, but Ruby didn't think so. Vampires were evil, horrible creatures, down to the very last one. They deserved nothing but extermination. To be wiped out to the very last man, woman, and child.

The castle had a outer ring of walls protecting a series of buildings, which in turn surrounded a higher, inner ring of walls. Inside that inner ring lay the castle's citadel, a three story stone building with several towers. It was a decent sized fortress, albeit decrepit and run-down.

"Who would even build a castle all the way up here?" Ruby muttered. "There isn't any civilization for a hundred miles in any direction..."

A bright flash of light suddenly caught her eye. It came from down the cliff, on the other side of the castle, from the forest near the edge of the causeway. Which was where the rest of the band of vampire hunters were lying in wait for Ruby to drop the drawbridge and open the gate. That was the signal from Yang. The flash of a mirror. It was time.

"This is a stupid plan," Ruby repeated. "Stupid stupid stupid."

She looked down the slope in front of her. It was steep, rocky, and lined with all sorts of loose stones and hardy shrubs clinging to the cliff face. One slip, one mistake, and she could slide down the rest of the way to her death.

"If I live through this, I'm gonna make Yang crawl through a strawberry field until she's picked me at least fifty," Ruby growled to herself.

She readied herself, twisted her grip on her scythe and took a deep breath. Then she started running. She took off, running downhill as fast as she could, as quickly as she could manage. She didn't think about what path to take down the slope, where to place her next step, just reacted on instinct. Her feet moved and her legs pumped as if of their own accord.

Down, down, down. Faster, faster, faster. She leaped over a fallen log, dodged right around a waist-high boulder, skidded down a few feet of loose gravel, and kept going. The edge of the slope was coming up fast. Between that edge and the top of the castle's outer wall was a ten foot chasm.

She grit her teeth and picked up speed. Her momentum carried her faster than she could ever have run on her own. She was almost there. A few more steps. Time seemed to slow.

She put on a final burst of speed, kicked off the edge of the chasm, and jumped.


	2. Chapter 2 - Black like Loss

Ruby landed hard, slamming her stomach onto the crenelated wall of the fortress and tumbling over onto the flat battlements on the other side. It almost knocked her out.

She heaved a gasping breath and tried to rise. Her vision swam. She could hear movement and shouting all around her. No doubt the vampires had heard her botched leap to the wall and were moving to investigate. Stumbling to her feet, she somehow managed to unlimber the heavy crossbow on her back and ready a magnesium-tipped bolt. Her hands shook. Muscle memory allowed her to do this as she stumbled a dozen feet into a nearby stone blockhouse. She hoped it contained stairs that lead down the wall. She shouldered the door open, still readying her crossbow. Stairs. That was good.

She had just finished cranking the bolt back when the first vampire burst in door one level below her, shouting something and looking up the stairs with wide eyes. He looked unremarkable, like your local baker or street vendor. Long brown hair, a weathered face lined with wrinkles and laugh marks. His cheekbones protruded noticeably. There wasn't much human prey up in these mountains, and this coven had to be starving. He looked confused more than anything. Almost scared.

She sighted in and put a magnesium-tipped bolt through the front of his skull. There was a flash of bright, silver fire as it burned away the insides of his head. Something in vampire blood reacted with magnesium and made it ignite. It was a long, time-consuming process to infuse weapons with magnesium, but the results were obviously worth it. She cranked the crossbow back again and slotted another bolt home, then dropped down the stairs onto the first floor. A few feet behind her, set into the stairs, was a second doorway that she hadn't noticed.

A female vampire with jet-black hair burst out of it, claws and fully extended fangs extended. When vampires got hungry and starving like this, they lost some of their ability to disguise themselves as human. Her teeth were nearly six inches long and filed to razor points. Her claws were the same. They were more animals than anything else. Ruby spun on her heel but was a second too slow. The vampire tackled her to the ground, smacking the back of her head into the floor and clawing at her face, trying to bring her fangs to bear.

Ruby desperately grabbed the vampires wrists with her hands, brought her boot up, placed it in the center of the vampire's chest, and kicked. The creature flew backwards and smashed into a wooden shelf, collapsing it. She screeched hideously and started to rise. Ruby didn't let her. She grabbed the crossbow from the ground and put a bolt through the woman's heart. The woman's whole body ignited in brilliant white flame. Ruby had to shield her eyes. Magnesium flares could blind you.

Cursing incoherently, Ruby readied another crossbow bolt. Snow swirled into the blockhouse from the two open doors. She needed to get out of this room. She could handle one or two vampires in close quarters like this, but if they started to swarm her she was dead.

She peeked outside. There was an open courtyard surrounded by the decaying shells of houses. Vampires were starting to congregate. They were pointing and shouting at the blockhouse. Ruby ignored them and the sharp chill of fear in her chest. She could see the gate. It wasn't far.

She took a deep breath, steadied her shaking hands, and sprinted outside into the open courtyard. The gate was only a short distance away. Sudden shouts and cries rang out around her. She could see the blurry forms of several vampires racing to catch up with her in her peripherals.

"Stupid stupid stupid stupid," she screamed in her head.

As she ran, she realized she had no idea how to bring the gate down. It was heavy and wooden. There was a large metal chain holding it up. The gate doubled as a drawbridge. When the drawbridge came up, it became the gate. That chain had to be it. A vampire rushed her from the side and tried to tackle her. She dodged to her right. The creature missed, landed hard and skidded several feet. There was so much shouting now.

She pulled her five-foot ornate scythe from her back. The haft was sturdy oak, engraved with designs of rose vines. The head was magnesium-tipped silver, sharpened to as fine a point as anyone could manage. She was at the gatehouse. She leapt up in the air and swung. The scythe cut clean through the chain links, then slammed into the stone wall behind it and got stuck. Ruby smacked into the wall and fell onto her back.

This time was worse than when she hit the wall earlier. Her vision was dark and filled with bright spots of light. Pain. She hurt. She had been holding onto the scythe when it stuck into the wall, so she had nothing to shield herself with. Her head had cracked into the stone heavily.

She fought for breath and tried to rise. Dimly, she could hear a grinding, a groan, and then a great, heavy smash. She manged to pull herself into a crouch and looked up. A group of vampires, fangs and claws gleaming in the rising sun, were sprinting right at her. She held up her hand in a pitiful attempt to stop them from ripping her open and drinking her dry. This wasn't how she wanted to go. She wasn't finished yet.

There was a volley of sharp cracks, and all four vampires went down in silver-bright flashes. Confused, Ruby looked behind her. Dozens of vampire hunters were rushing across the now-fallen drawbridge, yelling and gesturing, their boots thumping on the wood. A line of them in the front were kneeling and reloading their crossbows. They were shouting and cheering her name. She smiled despite the pain.

Several of them rushed forward to help her while the rest flooded into the open courtyard. The clash of steel and the screams of the dying began to fill the air. Yang suddenly pushed through the men trying to help her, shouting at them to join the fight, and started helping her to her feet.

"C'mon, you're fine Ruby, you're fine. What happened? Did they bite you anywhere?"

Ruby shook her head. Her vision was starting to clear. "I uh... I hit the wall pretty hard. But no, they didn't bite me or anything. They were about to though. You guys saved my life."

"Any day little sis." Yang beamed at her and gave her a great big hug. Sudden warmth in the cold. Yang's arms felt safe and wonderful. "You were freaking awesome. No one else could have gotten that gate open. I mean that. Now, are you feeling up to killing some more freaks?"

Ruby grinned. "Always."

She readied her scythe, reloaded her crossbow, and jogged with Yang to the front line of the battle, which was slowly pushing forwards towards the second set of walls. The vampires were mobile, agile fighters. They never stood in one place, never stopped moving. They knew they would be easy targets for magnesium-tipped crossbows if they did. Still, most of the hunters were veterans, and could track the vampires even though they were little more than fast moving blurs of fangs and claws. Several went down to the firing line of crossbows, while they rest skirmished with the front line of hunter spear-men and swordsmen. The spear-men held them at bay, and the swordsmen charged forward in tight groups facing in all directions, watching eachother's backs. The vampires liked to flank and surround their enemies. Whenever a group started to get overwhelmed, they simply fell back towards the heavy line of crossbows and spears, which quickly cut the chasing vampires down. Tried-and-true battle tactics, perfected over the years.

Ruby soon found herself back to back with Yang and two other hunters she didn't know, pushing deeper towards the wall and creating space for the main line of crossbowmen and spear-men to move forward. Vampires whirled and slashed at them from all sides. Ruby blocked and spun and cut. The man next to her went down with a gurgling cry, his throat torn open by jagged claws. Blood poured down his front as he slowly collapsed.

Yang shouted hoarsely and punched a vampire with her gauntlets – her weapons of choice. The metal gloves were tipped with two long spikes near the thumb and pinky, allowing her to punch the blades forward like a pair of brass knuckles. The blades slammed into the unfortunate vampire's head with a heavy thumb, and Yang dragged it shrieking to the ground. She gave his head a few good stomps. The shrieking stopped. Ruby spun and deflected a vampire's blade with her scythe. Some of them used swords, and most were experts in the craft, having much longer lifespans to perfect their techniques. But Ruby was still better. She still practiced more than they did. Her return blow nicked the vampire's thigh, and it caught fire with a bright silver flash. The vampire howled in agony and leaped away. Ruby grinned.

Yang grunted as she deflected a blow from a club with her gauntlets. "This is a lot more than twenty or thirty," she shouted to Ruby. "This is like fifty!"

"We'll be fine as long as we keep together!" Ruby yelled back. "If we stay strong they won't be able to pick us off!"

A vampire leapt down from the inner wall, grabbed a hunter that was a few feet apart from the main group, and dragged him screaming into a darkened alley. Several hunters moved to help him.

"So much for that plan!" Yang shouted.

"Just stick to the plan!" Ruby replied. "We're almost to the second set of walls!"

"Pull back!" a rough voice behind them shouted.

Ruby looked behind her to see a five-man squad of hunters in heavy steel plate armor, wielding battleaxes and greatswords, thundering their way. Ruby and Yang's squad split up, letting the heavier team push their way through to the front. The two sisters took the opportunity to regroup with the main force. The fighting was brutal. Darkened houses loomed all around. Alleyways yawned at them from every angle. Vampires struck and disappeared, vanishing into the shadows before reappearing elsewhere. The hunters were slowly being picked apart. Another courtyard, this one in front of the gates of the inner wall, was opening up ahead.

Ruby recognized the problem, and quickly decided on the best solution. "Regroup!" she shouted with all her might. "Infantry square formation! Stay together!"

The hunters, even the veterans, followed her orders. Everyone wanted to be told what to do when the steel started flashing. It was so much easier than thinking on your own. They started pulling together, coalescing themselves into a four-sided square in the middle of the plaza. The armored block of hunters was bristling with blades. Spears and heavy armor on the outside, crossbows on the inside.

The fighting continued, heavy and brutal and bloody. A man with a battleaxe split a howling vampire in two. A spear-man impaled one through the heart, lifted it up into the air, and slammed it howling back to the ground. Magnesium tipped crossbow bolts ended its life before it rise. A vampire ripped away a man's shield. The man responded by cutting its throat with a broad swing of his axe. A few vampires on the rooftops started using bows. They claimed the lives of a few crossbowmen before the superior force and accuracy of the crossbows claimed their lives in return. Every bright flash marked another vampire slain.

The hunter's superior tactics were telling. A vampire died every few seconds. Their numbers thinned, while the hunter's ranks stood strong. A vampire howled and died with a crossbow bolt in his heart. Another one screamed and shrieked, ripped a man's head off, and then was run through with five different spears. It writhed on the ground, howling and screaming, before a man in heavy plate armor stepped forward and crushed its head with a crunching hammer blow. Blood spattered across the ground like a splash of red paint.

And then there was silence. It was so sudden and severe that Ruby had to blink her eyes several times just to make sure she wasn't imagining things. The adrenaline pumping through her body made her twitchy. She tightened her grip on her scythe. It took several seconds to set in. The vampires had only retreated; they were not beaten entirely. But now was the perfect time to press their advantage.

The creatures couldn't be allowed to regroup and recover; their wounds healed unnaturally fast. Something had to be done. And it looked like she was the one to do it.

"Right," she shouted, trying to make her voice firm and hard. Yang grinned at her. "Casualties? Who's too wounded to continue?"

Several men spoke up. Their voices sounded strained.

"Okay, the wounded men fall out of the formation. I want five healthy men to stand guard over them. The rest of you, hold formation and let's push up through the second wall. Everybody with me?"

A chorus of hoarse and hopeful cheers rang out. The men looked to her with fire and passion. They believed in their cause as much as she did. She couldn't help but smile. Yang gave her a thumbs up and thumped her on the back.

"Alright, let's move out!"

As one, the group of vampire hunters moved forward, maintaining their infantry square formation. Every side was covered. Every approach was watched. There were no gaps or weaknesses. Only thirty or so men remained by Ruby's count. But it would be enough to finish the job.

They pushed down a wide street to the inner wall gate, lined by empty houses yawning and silent. The sun was obscured by an ocean of heavy grey clouds. The chill in the air deepened. Ruby shivered. The whole castle felt like a corpse that had been abandoned a long, long time ago. Even the vampires living here couldn't give it a sense of life.

They reached the inner wall gate. Beyond it lay the castle's keep. The heavy wooden doors were barred and sealed. Ruby could see no other way in. No way to scale the walls. No secondary doors.

"And of course we didn't bring any siege equipment," Ruby muttered.

One of the other hunters turned to look at her incredulously. "What? You want to drag a battering ram up the mountain for us?"

Ruby grinned. "Fair point. Alright! Maintain the formation, and everyone keep your guard up. I want two five-man teams to start searching the surrounding buildings for a way in!"

Suddenly there was a heavy creaking noise, a grinding groan. Ruby turned, startled, to look at the gate. Everyone tensed up and readied weapons. The gate was opening. Slowly.

Crossbows were raised. Spears were pointed at the slowly forming gap in the wooden doors as they were pushed outwards. The doors opened enough for a single man to step through. Everyone stared in confusion.

Ruby laughed. "Orson!"

He grinned at her, tall, strangely handsome, and with a thick dirty beard. He was their best tracker, and frequently disappeared without telling anyone. But he always found the best things when he did.

"Door's open," he called. The man was always quiet. Even his attempts to be loud ended up sounding like a whisper.

"Alright, let's get that gate open!" Ruby shouted. "Spear-men at the gap in case anything comes through! Crossbows, watch the rooftops!"

Men scrambled and hurried to comply. The crossbowmen formed up in a tight circle, covering every direction. Spear-men protected them and leveled their spears at the gap in the now-widening gate that the swordsmen and heavy infantry were pulling open.

Orson moved through the crowd and stood beside her. "I've got something you want to see," was all he said. He nodded at Yang. "You too. A way up to the top of the wall."

Ruby nodded. She knew enough of him to trust him.

* * *

They crouched low on the battlements, peeking over the snowbanks on the wall over to the other side, where the castle's keep lay. The heavy, three story building would have been magnificent, a hundred years ago. Arched, fluted, Victorian architecture. Almost like a cathedral. That wasn't what concerned Ruby. What concerned her were the ten figures standing in two ranks of five in front of the keep.

Their armor was black and jagged, spiked and menacing. Miniature stylized wings flared outwards from their helmets. Each man carried a winged spear and a black sword at his hip.

"Draconian Guard?" Ruby hissed. "What the hell? What are they doing here?"

Orson frowned, his green eyes flinty and cold. "I don't know. But it means that there's a vampire lord inside that keep. Draconian Guard don't serve anything less than a full lord. And he has ten of them. He must be powerful indeed."

"Then what's he doing all the way up here in the middle of nowhere?" Yang asked.

Ruby felt a discomforting chill slide down her spine, and it wasn't from the biting cold. "If he's got ten Draconians and he really is a powerful vampire lord, why hasn't he left the keep? If he and his men had attacked us all at once in the beginning they could have slaughtered us."

Orson let out a strange grunt. "I do not know. Perhaps there is something in the keep he wishes to protect?"

"Then he'll probably run with whatever it is as soon as we show up pounding on the door," Yang spoke up. "I feel like it'd be a bad idea to let this guy escape. And c'mon, it's not like we haven't killed a vampire lord before Ruby."

Ruby gave her sister a look. "She wiped out the group of soldiers we were with, nearly killed both of us, and was about to finish you off before she slipped and landed on a magnesium sword that was _somehow_ sticking up in the air. How in the world does that count as defeating a vampire lord?"

Yang smirked. "Yeah, but we were only teenagers back then. You're twenty one now, and I'm twenty three. I think we could take one. Plus, we do still outnumber them."

Ruby sighed. "Okay, so we might be able to take them in a fair fight. But like I said before, if we start attacking the Guard the vampire lord might just run for it. And we _can't_ let him get away. Not with what he did to that village."

Images flashed, unbidden, through Ruby's mind. Houses with floors drenched in blood and scattered body parts. Wooden crosses with dead children nailed to them. A metal cage in the center of the town filled with charred bodies. She could tell by the nail marks on the bars that they had been burned alive. Blood. Fire. Smoke.

Hot anger and bitter rage coursed through her body, and her resolve steeled itself. She could still smell the smoke. "We are _not_ letting him get away."

Yang looked at her for several seconds. Then she nodded. "Yeah. You're right. Maybe there's another way into the keep? A way we can sneak around those guys out front?"

"I've already found one," Orson interjected. "A side entrance." He pointed, careful to move slow and not alert the vampiric Draconian Guard stationed in front of the keep.

Ruby nodded. "Good work. We can take a small team and sneak inside, and the rest of the hunters can keep the Draconians busy with a small siege. Pelt them with crossbows and stuff. If they get too close they'll probably lose in hand-to-hand fighting. Draconian Guard are the elite of vampires for a reason. But they can't do much from a distance."

Yang nodded. "Sounds good Ruby. I'll head back and let everyone know, then head back up here. I'll tell them to give us ten minutes, and then to start attacking. Sound good?"

Ruby looked pointedly at Orson.

"Ten minutes is more than enough time for us to sneak in," he said.

Yang grinned. "Sounds like a plan. Let's do it."

* * *

Five minutes later, Ruby, Yang, Orson, and two veteran hunters were carefully climbing down the rooftops on the other side of the inner wall. They were on the far side of the keep, the side opposite the Draconian Guard. And as far as Ruby could tell, they hadn't been spotted going around.

She crouched down on the edge of a roof, flipped around and grabbed the edge, then dropped down to the cobblestone ground below. Her boots made a light thump. Snow blew around them in swirls and whorls, spiraling around them and down the narrow street like a vortex. They moved as a group, tight, silent, and vigilant. Orson led. Ruby and the two hunters, Mikael and Harold, brought up the middle. Yang watched the rear.

They reached the spot Orson had pointed to earlier. A window on the second story of the keep. There were metal bars on most of the other windows, but this ones had snapped or broken off long ago. They crouched under the window as a tight group, huddling in the cold.

Harold and Orson got into position under it, ready to lift someone up. Ruby nodded and stepped into their handholds. They grunted and stood up, careful to keep her steady. Mikael and Yang watched the approaches down the street.

Ruby reached up. Her hands grabbed at the ledge of the window. She grunted and pulled. Harold and Orson pushed up and gave her the last few feet she needed. The window still had a single iron bar clinging to its left edge. She climbed up it, clung to it tightly, and started trying to find a way to open the window. The glass was heavy and thick. It didn't appear to open from the outside. Ruby cursed. The frosted metal bar she was holding on to was making her hand numb.

She grunted, braced herself, and started kicking at the window. Three heavy kicks later, the right corner pushed out of its frame a little. She grinned. Careful to make as little noise as possible, she pushed the corner in, and the entire window fell out of the frame. Ruby caught hold of an edge before it could hit the wooden floor on the other side. She held her breath. No sound came from inside. She climbed into the now open window and lowered the glass carefully to the floor. The room inside was dark and dusty, just as empty and abandoned as the rest of the castle.

Ruby crouch-walked up to the room's only closed wooden door and pressed her ear to it. She listened for several seconds. She could hear dim, muted voices, but no approaching footsteps. She let out a heavy breath.

Making her way back to the window, she bent down over the edge and held out her hands. Orson and Harold lifted Yang up, and Ruby grasped her forearms and pulled her up and in. Mikael replaced Orson and then lifted him up to the window. Ruby repeated the process and pulled him inside, then leaned down and instructed the two veteran hunters to cover their exit. They unlimbered heavy crossbows and pulled cloaks over themselves.

She turned back to the room. Her chest was pounding, and her palms were sweaty despite the cold. Orson and Yang were waiting by the door. She nodded, Yang pushed the door open, and they moved into the hallway. It was made of ancient stone, dusty and dim and decrepit. There were sconces for torches in the walls, but none of them were lit. And it was cold. Just as cold as it was outside. Ruby shivered.

Orson had his hand on his longsword. Ruby knew her scythe would be useless in such tight confines, so she had her crossbow ready. Yang just flexed her gauntlets and grinned. Ruby signaled for them to stop. She shut her eyes and listened.

She could hear two voices drifting down the hallway, too muted to make out any of the words. One sounded male, heavy and deep. The other was higher pitched. Female. Were they arguing? She took the lead and signaled them forward towards the sound of the voices.

They crept down that dark, dusty hallway, making as little noise as possible. All the rooms they passed were as empty and desolate as the one they had came in through. Ruby followed the sound of the voices. They came to a wide stone stairway leading down to the first floor and took it. It led down into an open room near the front of the keep. White sheets covered human-like shapes on the floor. Yang crept over and pulled back one of the sheets. Her face hardened.

"Drained of blood," she whispered. "They probably kept these people like livestock, feeding whenever they needed to."

Ruby clenched her fists, but nodded them onward anyway. The other hunters would attack the keep soon, and she wanted to get to the vampire lord before he could escape. She would have time to be angry later.

They crept down a short hallway that led deeper into the keep. Small rooms opened up to either side. White-sheeted bodies lined the floors of most of them. At the end of the hallway was a large set of wooden double doors, the engravings scratched and faded beyond all recognition. The voices were coming from the other side. Ruby held up her hand for them to halt. Yang crept up next to her. Orson turned and watched the hallway.

Ruby put her ear to the door.

"-don't care if you want to stay and fight them off! We are leaving, and that is final! I am still your father, and you will do as I say!"

The male voice. Then the female one spoke. It was high-pitched and lilted. Almost... beautiful. Like a singer's voice.

"But we have the Draconian Guard! If we join them and fight, we can win! I won't just run away from these filthy creatures! I don't understand why you won't just let me fight!"

"Because I won't lose you!" the man shouted.

Everything was quiet for a few seconds. Ruby held her breath.

"I won't lose you," he repeated. "Not after what happened to your mother. Weiss, you are all I have left. You _have_ to live."

"So _now_ you care about me," the female voice said. "You've never cared before. Why now?"

"Ooh, family drama," Ruby whispered. Yang chuckled. Weiss. What a strange name.

"I've always cared! I've only been trying to protect you!"

"By slaughtering and burning down that village? Father, I have nothing against feeding when we must, but you massacred a village full of innocents because one of them _might_ have found this place!"

"I was only keeping you safe. I did what had to be done. And they're just humans. They're no better than livestock."

Yang shot her a look. Ruby nodded.

"Orson," she whispered. He turned. "As soon as the hunters attack, we do the same."

He nodded. She turned back to the doors.

"-we could just kill the one leading them," the female voice spoke. "Without her, maybe they'd fall apart."

"The girl with the red and black hair? She's nothing. Even if she died, someone else would step up and taken humans are experienced in hunting our kind." He chuckled. "Just my luck."

"Maybe if you hadn't drawn hunters from the four corners of the world when you murdered that village," the female voice growled. "You doomed us yourself."

"There was no way to know which one of those villagers had seen us, and if-"

"You don't even know if they'd seen us in the first place!" the female interrupted. "You acted on your suspicions without thinking it through, again, and now we're trapped in this fortress trying to-"

"I will not be lectured by my own daughter!" the male voice roared. "Everything I have done is to keep you safe, and yet you show nothing but ingratitude and-"

A loud noise came from outside. A roar. The combined battle cry of thirty men hungry for battle. The hunters were attacking the Draconian Guard. Ruby readied her scythe. Orson came up behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder. Yang grinned, smashed her fists together, and kicked the door open.

The room beyond was wide and open with a vaulted ceiling, like the interior of a church. Stained glass windows lined the rear. Weak sunlight, tainted by the grey clouds, struggled in. Motes of dust swam in the beams of light.

The vampire lord, the one standing and taking them in, was tall. His hair was close-cropped, peaked and grey. His ornate clothing was pitch black. His sword was blood red. Next to him was a girl in white, much younger than he was. And she was _beautiful_. Ruby almost stopped in her tracks. Long, snow-white hair fell in a flowing curtain down to her waist. Her face was immaculate, sharp, pale, and her eyes were a frosted blue that Ruby could see even from across the room. The girl snarled, pulled a rapier, and stepped forward.

The vampire lord held her back with a hand. He turned and glared at her. "Weiss. Leave. Now."

She hesitated. "But father, if you'd-"

"I gave you an order!" he barked. "Run!"

Her eyes flashed back and forth between her father and the hunters. Then she turned and ran towards the stained glass windows. She jumped, crossed her arms in front of her, and smashed through. Snow blew in like a typhoon.

"Ruby, chase her down!" Yang shouted. She was still the older sister. "Orson, go grab the rest of the guys! I'll keep him busy!"

"Got it!" Ruby replied. She took off like a flash. She had always been a fantastic runner. The vampire lord moved to stop her, but Yang was already there, sending a series of blindingly fast kicks and punches at him. He was forced to fight back. Orson looked hesitant to leave, but ran out of the room anyway.

That was the last thing Ruby saw before she dove through the shattered window and out onto the balcony beyond it. Ruby landed hard and rolled, coming up fast and still moving. The frigid air whipped past her and stung her face. The white-haired girl was ahead, sprinting up a set of stairs to the top of the inner wall. Ruby saw a stack of crates leading up to it. She put on a burst of speed and grit her teeth.

She jumped onto the first box, then the second, then the third, using them as a ramp. She kicked off the top box and smashed onto the edge of the top of the wall, knocking the wind out of herself. But it was still faster than the stairs. The girl ahead looked back for a split second. Their eyes met. Ruby saw something in them. Something in her chest did a double-start. Then the girl in white snarled, turned, and kept running. She dropped off the top of the inner wall down to the streets below.

Ruby cursed her moment of weakness and pulled herself up. It wasn't her fault the vampire was stupidly attractive.

Ruby looked down from the wall. The girl in white was already sprinting down the street towards the outer wall. Ruby spied a faster way there, across the rooftops of the houses between the walls. She jumped, crossing the gap easily and coming up running. She dodged between chimneys, jumped over brick piles, and leapt between the gaps between rooftops. Her prey was running through the streets below her. She was catching up. She grinned. Her legs were burning and her lungs felt like they were on fire from the ice-cold air she was breathing in, but she felt more alive than she had ever. The thrill of the chase was a powerful thing.

She made it to the top of the wall before the vampire girl did. When the woman reached the top of the last step, she found Ruby waiting for her with her scythe at the ready.

"You run pretty fast, I'll give you that," Ruby said, taking deep breaths to still her racing heart. "And you're pretty. Real pretty, for a vampire at least." She grinned. "Almost sucks that I have to kill you."

The girl frowned and drew her rapier. Her chest wasn't heaving like Ruby's was. She drew herself up into a fencer's stance. "What's your name?" the girl called.

"Ruby. Why?"

"I like to know the names of everyone I've killed. That way I don't forget them."

Ruby smiled. "Fair enough. Yours is Weiss, right?"

The white-haired girl rolled her eyes. "How astute of you. It's almost like you were in the room when my father said it."

Ruby mock flinched. "Ouch. I hope your sword hurts more than your sarcasm does, or you're in trouble." She pushed her foot back and tilted her scythe.

Weiss grinned. "Oh really? Well, let's find ou-"

Ruby rushed her in a blur of speed, swinging her scythe horizontally at waist height. The blade cut through the air, making a heavy, brutal sound. Weiss did a sudden backflip, landing on her hands before coming to rest on her feet again.

"Now that was quite rude of-"

Ruby rushed forward again, this time with a downward swing that she turned into a spiraling series of horizontal swings. Weiss ducked and dodged, deflected with her rapier and turned the scythe blade aside before it could touch her. Her rapier sounded like it was singing when she swung it. Ruby almost found herself entranced.

After a few breathless seconds of fighting, Ruby pulled back and came to rest with her scythe across her shoulders. "You're pretty good," she muttered.

Weiss sheathed her rapier, pulled her hair into a tight ponytail, and drew the sword again within the space of only a few seconds. Ruby grinned and raised an eyebrow.

The white-haired girl slid back into a fencer's stance. "Your fighting style is repulsive. You think you can simply brute-force your way to a victory you dunce?"

Ruby swung her scythe off of her shoulders, holding the blade behind her. "Maybe. Just a warning though. This time I'm not going easy."

Now it was Weiss' turn to raise an eyebrow.

Ruby started dancing forward, still holding the blade of the scythe behind her. Weiss kept her rapier up held forward, waiting to deflect the inevitable swing of the heavy scythe blade. Ruby kept shuffling and dancing her feet forward, getting closer and closer. She was only a few feet away when she feinted an overhead scythe swing. Weiss raised her rapier. Ruby grinned.

She darted forward and smashed the scythe pommel into Weiss' gut, following it up with a heavy kick to the woman's ribs. Weiss let out a gasping wheeze and tilted sideways, holding up her rapier to fend off the incoming scythe blow. It never came. Ruby swept her right leg out and kicked at Weiss' shin. The white-haired woman toppled to the ground, sending up a flurry of powdered snow.

Now Ruby used the scythe blade. She aimed straight for Weiss' neck. But the girl was still a vampire, and her reflexes, reaction times, and recovery abilities were far beyond a regular human's. She rolled backwards onto her knees with superhuman speed, but Ruby's scythe blade still caught her above her left eye, gouging a cut down her face. She howled in pain, but stumbled back into a fencer's stance.

Ruby grinned, leaning on her scythe like it was a walking staff. Blood started pouring out from the cut. Weiss tried to wipe at it with the corner of her white sleeve. It stained the fabric red, but did nothing to stop the bleeding. The blood was running into her eye. Weiss shrieked and tried to cover it.

Ruby hefted her scythe up. "Welp, it was a good fight. I'm sure your father is already waiting for you in hell. Tell him I said hi."

She charged forward, her scythe ready to deliver the killing blow. Weiss looked up, her one open eye wide and full of fear. She didn't raise her rapier. Instead, she simply vanished.

Ruby's scythe clove empty air. She stumbled forward and almost fell. "What the hell?" she shouted.

She spun, whirled around, her scythe held up to defend her. She was alone. Or so she thought.

Suddenly, small puffs of snow started appearing on the ground, moving away from her at speed. Footsteps. They moved to the edge of the outer wall and then promptly disappeared. Ruby ran to the edge. Below was nothing but snow-covered trees and powdered snow. She could vaguely see more puffs of snow, moving quickly away from her.

"A ghostwalker," she muttered, frustration evident in her tone. She clenched her fists. "No way I can track her. Not by myself." Something occurred to her. "But if _she's_ a ghostwalker, then that means..." Her eyes went wide. "Yang!"

She turned on her heel and started sprinting back to the keep.

She moved faster than she ever had before. She was a blur, a human bullet. Snow whipped up in trails behind her. She tossed her heavy crossbow aside. She didn't need the weight. She took the same path back, leaping over rooftops and the tops of the walls. She slipped once and slammed into the edge of a roof. She grunted, pulled herself up, and kept running. She prayed that she would get there in time. Yang _had_ to know she was fighting a ghostwalker. It ran in the blood. Like daughter, like father.

The keep was right ahead. She sprinted around on the top of the inner wall, to the back where Weiss had broken through the glass, and leapt straight off and through the stained glass window. Shards caught on her thigh and tore her skin. She tumbled to the ground and rolled to a halt.

Yang stood in the middle of the room, alone. She looked up at Ruby and smiled. A trail of crimson ran down the corner of her mouth. She took a few steps forward, then coughed a mouthful of blood. Ruby's eyes went wide. Her heart shriveled, then stopped. Her brain wasn't functioning. This couldn't be happening. This wasn't real. It couldn't be.

"Hey Ruby..." Yang muttered, her voice hoarse, barely more than a whisper. "Take care of yourself, okay? I love you... And give this guy," she coughed, "give this guy hell for me-"

Her back suddenly arched forward. A red blade tip appeared in the center of her chest, pushing outwards and bursting through her rib-cage. The crimson blade lifted her up into the air. Her eyes rolled back into her head. She coughed a great gout of steaming blood. Ruby screamed. Part heartbreak, part terror, part confusion, part pure, unblinking rage.

The sword lowered and slid out of Yang. Her body dropped the ground and was still. The vampire lord materialized over her. It was if someone had suddenly pulled an invisible curtain away from him. He looked up at her, his gaze pure malice and hatred.

"What I did to her," he growled and pointed at Yang, "I will do to you. Now meet your end human filth!"

Ruby howled in absolute fury. Absolute loss. Her scythe was already in her hands. She charged. Yang had taught her over and over to always stay calm when fighting. Fear made mistakes. Anger caused recklessness. But rage...

She clamped down on her rage, felt it like a blazing hot fire in her dying heart. She turned it, molded it, used it. It was her fuel, her strength, her speed. She had never moved so fast, with so much purpose, in her entire life. Her entire existence became to end his. She was a whirlwind of a blade, spinning and twisting and swinging and slashing. The vampire lord grunted and stumbled backwards, his eyes full of surprise. Every time he brought his blade up Ruby knocked it away with another brutal, bone-smashing scythe swing. She put her loss and her anger and her mindless desire to _kill_ into every single movement.

The vampire lord was clearly a master swordsman. But he was used to a refined duel, a contest of skill and tactics and training. This was none of those. This was a match of attrition. He was already worn out from fighting Yang. And Ruby had the unthinkably powerful rage of losing her only family member as her fuel. She was winning.

Almost a minute passed. The vampire lord started resisting less and less. He made a few swings of his own, but every one was knocked aside. His blocks became slower and slower. Sensing she was about to win, Ruby swung even harder, moved even faster. She smiled like a madwoman. They swept around the interior of the keep, smashing aside wooden tables and chairs. Snow blowing in from the smashed stained glass windows swirled around them.

Ruby made her first cut, low on his right thigh. It caught bright, silver fire for a few brief seconds. He was too slow to deflect the scythe. Her next one came several seconds later, high on his right shoulder. He was too weak to turn the scythe blade fully aside. He grunted and stumbled backwards. Ruby pressed her advantage.

He tried to run. Ruby cut his hamstring. He tried to dodge to the side. Ruby slammed the side of his head with the pommel of her scythe. More and more cuts appeared. A shallow slice to his forehead. Another to his knee. A deep gouge into the right side of his chest. Blood ran down his straining, tattered frame, staining his black clothes an even deeper shade. Ruby laughed the laugh of the broken. He brought his sword up to block once again, unable to do anything else. Ruby swung her scythe with all her might, caught the flat of the sword, and sent it hurtling away into the dark recesses of the room. She turned the swing into a spin, wheeling around to deliver the killing blow. But he was suddenly gone. Her swing cut the air.

"Damn it!" she screamed. She almost slipped on all the blood on the floor. She wiped some off of her face. It was all over her. "You filthy coward!"

A group of men burst through the entrance of the hall. Orson was with them.

"Orson!" Ruby shouted. "Ghostwalker! He's bleeding!"

The man reacted without a second of hesitation. He reached into a pouch on his hip, produced a handful of shining grey dust, and flung it into the air. Fine, powdered magnesium. The wind blowing in through the window carried it around the room.

There was a blinding flash and a scream of pain from the corner of the hall where the vampire lord's sword had landed.

Ruby howled a wordless cry of rage and sprinted over to the tumbling, burning outline of a man. The screams became higher pitched. Ruby swung her scythe. It stuck deep into where the vampire lord's stomach would have been. Ruby snarled and twisted, pulled the scythe out, and swung again, this time at his legs. He was too busy being burned alive to dodge. Two sections of the magnesium outline, roughly the size and position of his legs, flew off, spraying blood in every direction. The main, larger section of the outline fell to the ground and started flopping around.

Ruby laughed and started hacking at it with her scythe. Each swing drew fresh blood. Each swing painted burning crimson liquid across the snow-dusted floor. She swung down at where the neck would be. The body suddenly appeared, materialized out of thin air, torn to pieces and covered in blood and magnesium fire. It had taken that much to kill him. The head rolled several feet. Blue eyes wide with horror and pain stared at the ceiling.

Ruby screamed and shouted and howled as she continued her bloody butcher's work. Despite herself, she started to choke up. Her swings slowed. "Why did you take her!? She was all I had! First my mother, then my life, and n-now her! You vampire freaks have taken everything from me!"

The body stopped twitching. Ruby kept swinging, until she missed and struck the cold stone floor, lost her balance, and tumbled to the ground. Her brain was empty, her mind blank. She couldn't process what had happened. She didn't want to. She couldn't face reality. It hurt too much.

She got to her knees and crawled over to Yang's body. The snow swirled around her, blowing around in spins and circles from outside. The layer of fresh powder on the floor was stained red. The men at the entrance of the room simply stared at her. They were too afraid to intervene.

"Yang?" she muttered, her voice weak and alone. "Yang? Are you okay?"

She nudged her older sister's broken form, trying to ignore the way her chest was split open. She looked at her face instead. "Yang? You're okay right?"

She looked into Yang's lilac eyes. They were empty and dull, lifeless and dead. Ruby felt a soul-shattering, heart-stopping loss set into her bones. It was certain. There was no denying it. Yang was gone. Yang was really, truly gone. The vampire lord had taken her. _They_ had taken her.

Ruby sat upright, growled, and clenched her fists so hard her nails drew blood from her numb and frosted hands. "You took her from me," she muttered to the howling wind. "She was all I had left, and you took her."

Tears threatened to run down her face. She stopped them. She wouldn't cry. Not yet. The vampire lord was dead; there was nothing more she could do to him. But his daughter... his daughter had been precious to him. She would take her away too, then. An eye for an eye.

"You loved her," Ruby choked out through her rage. She could barely see through a haze of red. "I could tell. So I'll kill her, just like you killed Yang."

The lifeless, hacked apart corpse of the vampire lord didn't respond.

"I'll kill her," Ruby growled. "I'll _kill_ her."

One of the men finally moved. Orson stepped forward and put his hand on Ruby's shoulder. He didn't say a word.

Ruby remained on her knees. She stared straight ahead. "Orson, where were you?"

"The Draconian Guard," he replied. His voice was so quiet. "I was fighting for my life."

Ruby squeezed her eyes shut and tried to calm down. She couldn't. Her mind wasn't working right, she could tell. She needed something to blame, something to hurt, something to kill. Orson wasn't to blame. So the only thing she could focus on was the girl in white.

"Orson, I need your help. The girl escaped. I need your help tracking her. _Please_."

He was silent for several seconds. The other hunters tried to make conversation and pretend they weren't listening in. "You couldn't track her yourself?" he replied.

"She's a ghostwalker too."

Orson let out a heavy breath. "Yes. I'll help. Let's move."

Ruby stood in one swift movement. Ignoring the looks of the other hunters, she grabbed her scythe from where it was stuck in the ground and pulled hard, dislodging it. She slid it into the holster on her back and cinched it up tight. Orson was waiting for her by the door.

They strode out through the keep into the courtyard, then started to make their way through the captured fortress. Dead vampires were being drug out into the streets and burned. The stench of blood and cooking flesh filled the air. Occasional screams sounded as the last few vampires were hunted down. Some of the screams were human.

The howling wind stung her exposed skin. She pulled her cloak around herself. Her heart was choking and dying. Her brain was still struggling to accept the loss. Part of her wanted to think she would turn the next corner and find Yang there, hugging her and congratulating her on a job well done. But she wouldn't. She was gone. The slate-grey sky overhead was brooding and uncaring.

"What are you going to do with her when you find her?" Orson asked.

Ruby's face twisted into a snarl. "What do you think?"


	3. Chapter 3 - Oribor

Tracking a single person through a snowstorm is hard, even for an experienced tracker. Tracking a person through a snowstorm almost thirty minutes after their tracks have been blanketed in fresh power is nigh impossible.

Yet Orson managed to track Weiss, the white-haired vampire he and Ruby were pursuing, over the entire uncharted, snow-blanketed Drangor mountain range.

They trekked over ancient, forgotten peaks, mountains and vistas that had been lost to time and human memory. The things they saw were awe-inspiring, terrifying in their majesty and might. Massive waterfalls that plummeted thousands of feet, creating a rumble that drowned out any sound for miles, a sound you could feel in your very bones. Mountain peaks that defied comprehension, jutting up into the clouds like jagged spears and disappearing into the cold blue of the upper stratosphere. Strange, twisted beasts. Elk with antlers bigger than their bodies. Bears with glowing purple stripes and claws dripping with acid. Mountain goats with membranes of thin skin under their legs that they spread out to glide short distances. Mountain lions that could change their skin to match their surroundings.

This land was old, very old, and very, very untamed.

They rarely stopped for sleep or rest. The nights were cold. Fire wasn't allowed: it could alert their vampiric prey. Orson didn't think Weiss knew she was being followed yet. Ruby always took the majority of the watch, staring into the darkness and simply remembering Yang. Her heart ached alone in the cold and dark. When the sun rose enough for Orson to resume his tracking, he did so, and Ruby simply followed along in an only half-aware state. The rage was still there, burning like a hot bed of coals in her heart, but it was starting to subside, starting to cool. And she was starting to forget why she was even chasing Weiss in the first place. It was as if the very cold of the mountains was chilling her anger, her lust for revenge. But she wouldn't let it. She wouldn't let that fire die. Not yet.

Without that anger, what did she have to live for? What did she have to drive her to put on foot in front of the other?

They were settling in to sleep on their fourth night when Orson spoke to her. It was the first time he'd said a word since they set out that wasn't a warning or an instruction.

"Ruby."

She looked up. His pale face was outlined by the last remnants of the setting sun. The snow-drenched forest around them was deep and foreboding.

"Yeah?"

"Are you still set on this course of action? To kill this vampire, this girl?"

Ruby looked down at her scythe, which she held across her lap. "Yeah. I guess."

"You know what happened to that village was not her fault. She even protested against it, you heard her as well as I did. She lost her father, and she seems lost and scared."

Ruby frowned. "She does?"

"If you paid attention, you could tell that much of her path is wandering and random. That is why we haven't caught her yet. Even I cannot predict where she will go next. The only reason that could possibly be is because _she_ does not know where she will go next. And that is also why she has not stopped to rest for any long period of time. She is still running. And yes, vampires do need rest."

Ruby shrugged and poked at the frosted ground with a nearby stick. "Yeah. Well even so, she's a vampire, and I have to kill her before she kills anyone else. It's them or her, you know? I'm just glad these mountains are so empty." Her eyes went hard and narrow. "She hasn't had a chance to murder anyone yet."

Orson was silent for a moment before replying."She said something back then about not killing innocents."

"She's the daughter of a vampire lord," Ruby scoffed, her breath misting in the air. "She's dangerous to whoever's around her. _And_ she's a ghostwalker. _And_ she's hungry. There's no doubt she'll feed on the first human she finds." Ruby snapped the stick in her fist. "We just have to find her first."

Orson said nothing. He stared at the horizon, his frost-covered beard making him look like he'd been a denizen of these mountains for years.

"You should get some sleep," Ruby continued. "We need to move hard again tomorrow."

He only nodded.

Ruby looked down at her scythe again. The magnesium-lined steel blade glinted in the dusk. Shadows played on the haft; heavy oak with carvings of wolves and ravens over a steel core. There was a hinge in middle of the shaft, so that she could fold the haft in two and then fold the blade in over that, easily enough for it to fit in her pack. Crescent Rose, she called it. Carving and creating it had been one of the proudest moments in her life. Yang had bragged about it to her friends for weeks. Yang.

Ruby looked up at the stars beginning to appear in the blue velvet of the night and let out a weary sigh.

* * *

Three days later, Orson spoke again.

They were on top of a rocky, jagged ridgeline, partially covered in snow-dusted evergreen trees. The sun was low on the horizon, purple and orange and red. Sunset threatened them with uncertainty and death. A pack of starving wolves had attacked them last night. Luckily, their starvation made them weak and hunger-crazed. She and Orson had been lucky enough to escape with only a few shallow scratches.

She wasn't fighting like she used to. During that fight with the vampire lord she had been so alive, so fueled with rage and loss... but now that fuel was gone. In its place was emptiness and silence.

Orson broke it. "Her movements aren't random anymore. She knows where she is going. I know where she is going."

Ruby had been gazing out at the forest below, hopelessly scanning for a glimpse of moving white hair in the forest. The ocean glimmered just on the farthest edge of the horizon. She jumped, startled. "Huh?"

"She is heading for Oribor."

Ruby frowned and looked back out at the horizon, trying to look like she hadn't been taken by surprise. Her face glowed. "The giant port-city? Why would she head there?"

"Aside from it being the closest city to here – and therefore the closest place for her to blend in and hide – there would probably be men there she could hire to find out what happened at the castle."

Ruby thought for a moment. "You're right. She wouldn't go back on her own, because she knows we might be waiting for that. But she'd still want to know what happened to her father."

Orson nodded. "And men starving for coin are never in short supply in Oribor. You could learn that from staying there an hour. I myself have been 'blessed' with months of experience."

"Great," Ruby grunted. "If it was this hard tracking her though this mountain range, how the hell are we supposed to find her in that cess-pool of a city?"

"Just flash some coin and ask if anyone's seen a girl with white hair. It shouldn't be difficult."

"Unless she goes underground," Ruby muttered.

They stood there in the silence for a few minutes. The wind howled past them like a lonely phantom. Ruby leaned up against a tree and watched the stars come out in the purple-black sky overhead. Orson produced a pipe and started smoking. Then he spoke again.

"There is another thing."

Ruby looked at him. "Yeah? What is it?"

"I will track her to Oribor, just in case she doubles back or goes around it somehow. But after we reach that city, I must leave you."

Ruby paused. Orson had been her constant companion over the past few days. He wasn't much of a talker, but his steady presence reassured her. Especially when her thoughts turned to Yang. The possibility of his absence was... disconcerting.

"I have a family," he continued, his voice a gentle whisper. "And I know you need my help, but they will be wondering where I am. I don't want my wife worrying over me. She knows what I do for coin. I try to worry her as little as possible. And as much as you need my help, Ruby, I honestly value my family over you."

Ruby smirked. "Yeah, no big deal really. I'd do the same. Or I would have, if Yang was still..." she looked down at the ground. "Yeah. If Yang was still here."

He flashed her a gentle smile. "Like I said, I'll track her to Oribor, if she truly does make her way there. But after that, I'll split ways with you. I know you can handle yourself on your own. You'll find her."

Ruby nodded. "Yeah. Yeah I will."

"Just remember to not judge her too harshly. She's scared and alone, and she might be even more so in Oribor. Something tells me that girl has not had much contact with the human world, or humans in general. You might end up saving her life there instead of taking it.

"Pfft, yeah right," Ruby scoffed. "If anything I'd just let her die. Saves me the trouble, right?"

Orson frowned at her. "Enough death has come of all this. I hunt vampires that prey on humans to protect the innocent, but this girl, there is something different about her. Perhaps she does not need to die."

The rage in Ruby's heart flared like a bonfire. "Yeah, and Yang didn't need to die either. But she did. And I'm not gonna take any chances with this vampire. She'd have no trouble finding victims in Oribor. The city guard would probably just overlook the murders anyway, like they always do."

Orson looked sidelong at her. "You know of Oribor?"

"Not much. Yang only took me there once. But we stayed long enough for me to get a good feel of it. It's not a nice place."

"Now there's an understatement if I ever heard one," he replied. "Even so Ruby, try to keep an open mind. This girl may be a murderer, or she may not. I've learned enough in my lifetime to know not to judge a person too quickly. Perhaps you will learn the same.

Ruby frowned, but said nothing. Orson propped himself up against a tree, wrapped his blanket around himself, and closed his eyes. The glow from his pipe cast faint shadows on his weather-beaten face. Ruby let out a heavy sigh into the dusk. She looked up at the stars, mapped the constellations in her head, and thought of Yang. Yang was the one that had shown her those constellations.

* * *

Oribor, almost a week later. Smoke. Smog. The smell of unwashed bodies and unwashed fish. The shouting of dock-hands, the ringing of bells, the occasional screams from dark alleyways that no one even bothered to turn their head towards. The hustle and bustle of a thriving and vibrant port city in the midst of political upheaval. And Ruby and Orson were right in the midst of it, moving towards a tavern that Orson had a friend in.

"I still hate this place," Ruby grumbled, adjusting the shoulder-strap of her pack. "When Baron Fronz was in power back when I was here last time I thought that it was bad, but this new democracy thing they've got going on now seems even worse."

"The new government doesn't have the power they need to keep the populace under control," Orson replied to her as they moved through the crowd. She could barely make out what he was saying. "And it's showing."

Anyone Ruby bumped shoulders with – which was inevitable in a crowd this size – shot her a mean look. Some shouted at her. She glared back at them all. Ruby was about to start pushing people out of her way when a woman a few feet in front of her stumbled – or was tripped – and fell into the main roadway. A heavy wagon wheel crushed her skull like an overripe melon as soon as she hit the ground. The wagon didn't slow or stop. No one cried out. No one even spared the woman more than a passing glance. Ruby's mouth gaped open. Orson grabbed her by the hood of her cloak and dragged her away. The city guardsman moving towards the woman – presumably to clear her body from the main thoroughfare – only laughed.

Orson pushed her up against the nearest wall.

Ruby motioned frantically. "What the hell was tha-"

Orson covered her mouth with his hand. His eyes bored into hers. "Listen to me Ruby Rose. This is Oribor. This sort of thing happens often. It will happen again. And unless you want to mark yourself as an outsider and alert every thief and murderer nearby about the possibility of easy prey from outside the city, I would advise you go along with everyone else and pretend it didn't happen. Do you understand?"

Ruby glared at him. Hot tears formed in the corners of her eyes. But after a moment she shut her eyes and nodded her head.

"Good. Now let's move. We're not far from our destination."

Ruby wiped her eyes, grit her teeth, and carried on.

Their destination turned out to be an old, run-down tavern on the edge of the docks, painted a fresh coat of bright red that couldn't hide the leaning walls or shattered, repaired, then shattered-again windows. A hanging sign by the front door proudly displayed the name _Apple Bottom_.

"Apple Bottom?" Ruby questioned, still angry at the world.

"Long story," Orson replied. "Suffice to to say the owner is not fond of apples, nor anything round and red at all."

"What else is round and red besides apples?"

Orson grunted with what could have been laughter. "You'd be surprised."

They weren't there long. Which was fantastic as far as Ruby was concerned, because the smell inside was worse than without. Orson spend a few moments speaking to the barkeep – and owner, apparently – while Ruby kept watch by the door. He returned with a wry grin.

"We're in luck," he muttered.

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Luck? In this city?"

"Strange, I know. But Saul, the barkeep, is an old friend of mine. I only had to empty a quarter of my coin purse before he 'remembered' that he had seen a girl with white hair just a few hours earlier."

Ruby's heart started beating fast. "Just like that? Where is she?"

"An inn down this street a ways, by the name of the Gilded Bronco. Not half bad of a place too, as far as inns in this city go."

"Then let's go get her!" Ruby hissed.

Orson placed a hand on her shoulder. "Ruby. I would advise you to wait. We registered at the city gates yes, but it will be several days before our registrations are officially recognized. Bureaucracy moves slow here. If you murder Weiss in a place like the Bronco, and the city guard catches you as an unregistered alien, you'll be marched to the gallows without a second thought."

Ruby bit her lip and frowned. "Well I just won't get caught then, right? I mean what good is it gonna do me if I get caught even after my registration is recognized?"

"Well you'll get a trial, for one," Orson answered. "And if you pass the judge enough coin, you might get away with a self-defense charge. But like I said, if you're not registered, they won't even read you your crimes before they slip the noose around your neck. And Ruby. I have to go now. I can't risk getting caught up in this place."

Ruby's frown deepened. "Yeah. Yeah I know. Your family and all. It's fine. I got it from here."

Orson gave her a concerned look. "Remember what I said. Do not judge her too quickly. See if there is some way you can make peace with her first." His eyes were honest. "Because what happens if you kill her Ruby? What happens when that rage in your heart goes out, and all you have left is the cold and emptiness inside? No, far better you make peace with it and let it die on its own. Maybe something else can fill the void inside you then."

Ruby huffed a breath. "Yeah. Okay. I'll talk to her first," she lied. She adjusted the pack on her shoulder and tried to look brave.

Orson smiled for the first time she had ever seen. Then he turned and disappeared into the crowd without a word or a backwards glance.

* * *

Several hours later, Ruby made her way down the crowded, torch-lit streets of Oribor, weaving in and out of the mass of people with much more ease than earlier. She had always been a fast learner. She moved with purpose and intent, swimming upstream against the current of people moving away from the docks as the markets closed for the night.

Oribor was different at night. More dangerous. More menacing. The shadows between buildings seemed darker and deeper. The harsh glares of the people she passed seemed more murderous than loathsome. More guards were out, true, but they looked just as murderous and loathsome as the rest. And she knew she still wasn't registered in the city's entries. But that wouldn't stop her. She couldn't wait any longer. The rage in her soul cried out for blood.

She realized in the back of her head that she probably looked as murderous as any hardened criminal in the city.

A three-story building looking slightly less decrepit than its neighbors stood out across the street ahead. The Gilded Bronco. And it actually was gilded, although the golden ornamentation was most certainly fake.

She stood across the street for a few minutes, trying to look busy and doing her best to get a feel for the place. Three stories, and no way up or down from the third story but inside, or a long drop on the outside.

Her mind swirled as the crowd swirled around her. Was Orson right? Did she actually need to kill this vampire? What about Yang? What would she want? Would she want vengeance, or peace?

Ruby grit her teeth as memories of her sister flooded her mind. Her laugh. Her smile. Her warm, strong embrace. Things she would never feel or hear or see again. Something, somewhere in the back of her head, was telling her that Yang would want peace after her death. She ignored it.

She was just about to step across the street when she saw her. Her heart stopped. Everything in that moment seemed to focus in on the person exiting the Gilded Bronco. Weiss. The vampire. Stepping out into the cold night, taking several quick steps to a nearby side alley, and then disappearing into it.

Ruby kicked herself into gear and followed, dodging around the carts in the street and ignoring the shouts and curses of those she narrowly avoided. She reached the corner of the alleyway that the white-haired girl had vanished down. Glancing around the corner, she could see several shadowy figures standing in the half-light spilling into the darkness. They were talking, but she couldn't make anything out.

She cursed and looked around, then up. It would seem luck was, after all, on her side. There was a short ledge, maybe a foot wide, that ran along the outside of the second story of the Gilded Bronco. She looked around, found no one immediately suspicious in the crowd, pulled her heavy brown cloak over her head, and jumped up. Her leather-gloved hands held purchase just long enough for her to scrabble and pull herself up, before leaning down into a crouch and creeping into the alleyway proper. Out of the light now, she moved closer and closer down to the shadowy figures in the middle of the alley. It was strewn with broken barrels and shattered crates, detritus and trash and things that smelled like something she'd be better off not knowing about.

Her padded boots made little to no noise on the cobblestone as she crept closer and closer. She could make out voices now. And as her eyes adjusted to the dark, she could make out the figures. There were four of them. A short one with a slim figure and white hair that stood out in the dark. Weiss. Another slim figure, but taller. A woman? And two broad, heavyset men.

One of the men was speaking. "I dunno lady, how much coin you got on you right now?"

"Enough." Weiss' voice. "Enough to pay you for what I require. We could have talked about this in the open you know, I'm not asking for anything illegal. Simply an escort."

"Yeah?" A softer voice, the woman. "Well how do we know exactly what we're gonna be escorting? Sure it's not something you'd rather keep hidden?"

"No. You'll be escorting me. There's a location up in the Drangor mountains I'll need you to escort me to, because only I know how to get there. It's been... something happened to it, and if I show up there first, the people there will have my head. So it's simple. I lead you there, you scout it out and find if there's anyone still there, and report back to me. And then I pay you. That should be easy enough for you to understand, right?"

The woman chuckled. "Yeah, we understand. So no drugs or valuables or anything like that you need escorted, just you, and you've got all the coin that you're planning on paying us on you right now?"

"Yes," Weiss huffed. "I've said that before, what part don't you understand? Will you help me or not?"

Ruby couldn't help but feel sorry for the vampire in that moment. Orson had been right. She must have been raised in that castle. She had no idea how the world actually worked. But there was nothing she could do for her now. And anyway, as a vampire, she deserved what was obviously going to happen next. Didn't she?

"Yeah, we understand all right," the woman replied. "We understand perfectly."

The two men grabbed Weiss before she could react. One clamped a hand over her mouth. The sounds of scuffling and struggling filled the alley. Ruby's heart pounded, and for some reason she wanted nothing more than to go down there and help. But she stayed put. She stayed put as she saw the unmistakable gleam of steel flash in the dark, heard the wet thump of it driving into soft flesh. The woman chuckled and pulled the knife out, then plunged it back in again. And again. And again. Weiss squealed through the man's hand the first time, but not the second or third or fourth. Her struggles stopped after the third.

"Drop her," the woman muttered. The two men did so. Weiss – or what had been Weiss – dropped to the dirty, grimy stone of the alley without a sound. Ruby's heart sank into her chest. She didn't like the feeling. Shouldn't she be happy? Her prey was dead.

The two men searched her body, shoving their hands into her shirt and pants with grim laughter. Ruby grit her teeth as she was forced to watch. It seemed more and more wrong with every passing moment. The alleyway then filled with the clink and clatter of gold on silver. One of the men held up a jingling purse.

"Got it," he muttered. He opened it and started counting. "Yowch, this bitch wasn't kidding. She could have paid us pretty damn well for simple escort duty."

"All the money and none of the work. A pretty good day, wouldn't you say?" the woman replied.

The men stood up and the three figures started to move towards the light, passing right under Ruby's crouching form.

"We just gonna leave her there?" one of the men said.

"Yeah, why not?" the other one replied. "The guards'll find her and just dump her body. They won't waste their time looking for whoever did her in."

"And if they do," the woman chimed in, "we definitely have enough to just pay them off."

The first man grunted. "Yeah, I guess so. C'mon then, let's spend some of this coin on drinks before it gets too late. Don't want to get my kids worried, you know?"

Their voices trailed off as they disappeared into the street and melted into the crowd, just three more nameless figures in the morass.

Ruby let out a heavy breath she didn't know she had been holding. She dropped down from the ledge with a soft _thwump_. The streets ahead and behind her were lit and busy and full of noise. The alley was dark and quiet. It would have been nice, if not for the mess and the smell. She quickly made her way over to Weiss' sprawled out form, leaned down, and checked her pulse.

She didn't even need to. The vampire's eyes were wide open and dead, ice-blue and lifeless as they stared up into the night she had died on. The whole front of her shirt was stained with a heavy pool of blood. It was running down onto the ground.

Ruby frowned. She didn't feel any happier. She didn't feel any better. If anything she felt... sadder somehow. She couldn't put her finger on why. Maybe this girl hadn't deserved to die like all the rest of her kind. Maybe Orson had been right. She would never know now.

She said a quick prayer, closed Weiss' eyes, and stepped away before melding back into the street and then the crowd, just another nameless figure in the morass.

* * *

The beer in Oribor tasted terrible. Ruby learned that quickly.

She was sitting in the dark corner of a smoky tavern a few days later, trying to figure out what to do and where to go next when she decided to try some of the local brew, and quickly learned that fact.

"What do they use for hops, sewage waste?" she growled, then took another long gulp. At least it burned good.

The tavern she was in didn't have quite as many broken windows and squeaking rats in the walls as the rest, but it seemed the beer here was just as bad as everywhere else. Still, it helped her think.

She didn't know what came next. Back home to her village, to Tenebrous? She hadn't been there for a while, but she should at least see to Yang's old house. Unless it had already been broken into and looted. Matter of fact, it most likely already _had_ been broken into and looted. So what now? Somewhere new? Maybe a journey across the sea? Oribor was the best place for that. Say what you would about the city itself, but the sailors knew their trade.

In this kind of situation, Yang would have told her to listen to her heart. But therein lay the problem. Her heart was empty and cold, devoid of direction. It didn't know where to go or what to do either.

So she sat there, drank more of that terrible beer, and let her mind drift off into the smoke and noise.

And then she heard something.

"Yeah, a weird girl with white hair. Plus the other two guys."

She had to make an effort not to look in the direction of the conversation. Instead, she turned her head casually and glanced around. Two males. Traders, by their looks. Their clothes weren't as ragged as everyone else's.

"Yeah? What's she up there for?" the second man asked. His voice was deep.

"Dunno," the first replied. His voice was higher, almost whiny. It made him sound untrustworthy. "I know the two men are getting the noose for managing to get caught stealing in front of the city guard, but I'm not sure about the girl. I didn't manage to hear what she was up there for. Probably an illegal or something."

"Well that sucks for her, if she didn't end up doing anything wrong. White hair you said?"

Whiny-voice nodded.

"Strange. Can't say I've ever seen anyone with white hair. And this is a big city. Maybe one of those western races living up in the mountains that we never hear about? I heard they're some strange folk."

"Maybe she's a vampire," whiny-voice said, after a long few seconds of relative silence.

Ruby's heart nearly stopped. How could it be Weiss? She had seen her die, smelled the blood, listened to the stillness of her heart herself!

"A vampire?" deep-voice scoffed. "Yeah, sure. I mean maybe, who knows what color hair they have."

"Mostly brown," whiny-voice answered.

"Brown? How do you know?"

"I seen one once. Stowaway running from somewhere. He had brown hair."

"Doesn't mean they all mostly have brown hair," deep-voice mumbled. "Just because you saw one doesn't mean you've seen 'em all."

"Yeah, well whatever," whiny-voice continued. "All I know is they're due for hanging at four. But of course it'll end up being five, with the way the guard drags their ass."

"You know they just like a crowd. They like to make examples."

"Yeah, and I bet some of the sick bastards in the crowd just like to watch them squirm."

Ruby had heard enough. Whether it was Weiss or not, she had to be sure. She stood casually, picked up and then shouldered her pack. She approached the two traders, avoiding waitresses and other tables in the way. She reached their table, and both of them stared up at her in suspicion.

"Hey guys," she started. "I couldn't help but hear you talking about a hanging? It's my first time in this city," she lied, "and I would really like to see what they're all about. Do you know where it's taking place?"

They were silent for several moments. Then whiny-voice answered. "Yeah, Pound Square, just down the street a few blocks. You can't miss it. It's the one with the big gallows in the middle," he sneered.

Ruby simply smiled. "Thanks. You guys are the best."

As she turned and walked away, she heard whiny-voice mutter: "Sick bastard," under his breath.

* * *

Judging by the giant clock tower overlooking Pound Square, it was only three in the afternoon. And yet the square was already packed, full of people crowding and jostling for a better view of the gallows. They were empty so far. Nothing but a raised wooden platform with three nooses dangling from an upper beam. The sun was bright and stung her eyes, so she retreated into the shadows of the nearby buildings bordering the square, dropped her pack, and sat down to wait.

And wait. And wait. She bade her time by polishing her scythe and carving random figures out of a few sticks she had brought along.

It was around four-thirty when a commotion stirred her from her thoughts. The crowd around the gallows was shifting and murmuring. Heads began to appear behind the gallows, walking up the stairs onto the wooden platform.

Six guards in steel plate armor and a mixture of swords and axes. Between them, three figures in brown cloaks, with brown sack-cloth hoods covering their heads. Their hands were bound behind their backs. Two had broad figures. Males. One was smaller, shorter, thinner. Definitely a female. The skin showing on her legs and arms was pale. Could it be Weiss? Ruby watched with baited breath.

The three figures were marched – or shoved – by the guards to their spots under their respective nooses. Two guards stood on either edge. One stood at the front. One stood behind each prisoner. A guard with red feathers decorating his shoulder plates – presumably a sergeant – walked up the platform and stood by the lever that would release the trapdoors under the prisoners feet. The crowd cheered. He raised his hands and bellowed with laughter. The crowd cheered louder. Ruby felt a little sick. Did these people really enjoy the death of other human beings so much? Even a vampire didn't deserve such a humiliating death.

Sometimes, Ruby caught herself thinking, humans really could be as bad as vampires. All vampires were monsters, true, but sometimes humans were just as bad. It was despicable.

The guard chief motioned for silence. After a few seconds, the crowd quieted.

"People of Oribor!" His voice was loud and deep, a baritone with impressive range. Ruby could easily hear him from the other side of the square. She walked closer anyway, slipping through the crowd so she could get a better look at the prisoners.

The guard sergeant continued. "These three degenerates standing before you have been tried and convicted of horrible crimes! As such, they are to be put to death! Let them be an example to you all!"

Crows and ravens cawed and swirled overhead as the guard sergeant nodded to his men. The hood was pulled off the first prisoner. He blinked and shook his head at the sudden light. His eyes were wide and full of terror. The crowd booed. Several threw things at him.

"Madrigal Schoust!" the guard sergeant shouted. "You have been convicted of the crime of thievery and deceit, and for stealing the food that would keep others alive in these dark times, the punishment for your crime is your own death. Justice to Oribor."

He said nothing. He bowed his head, shut his eyes, and started shaking. Maybe he was praying to whatever god he served.

The second guard pulled the hood off of his prisoner. The man blinked and looked around, much like the first. His eyes too, were wide with fear and terror.

"Arnold Kramer! You have been convicted of the crimes of thievery, deceit, and intent to murder!"

"That's not true!" Arnold started shouting. "I didn't do any of that, the Baron framed me and I told the judge and he was-"

The sergeant motioned with his hand. The guard behind Arnold shoved a strip of cloth into Arnold's mouth and tied it behind his head. Arnold continued shouting anyway, but it was muffled and indecipherable behind the gag. The crowd booed. One of them threw a shoe that hit Arnold in the head. Ruby almost felt like throwing up. She knew there wasn't anything she could do for these men, but this felt wrong.

"For your crimes against Oribor, for attempting to take the life of another, you will have your own life taken from you. Justice to Oribor."

The guard sergeant nodded towards the third guard. Ruby's pulse quickened. The hood was pulled off of the third prisoner. Waist-length, alabaster-white hair, shining in the sun. Ice-blue eyes. A sharp, attractive face. Weiss.

Ruby's heart stopped. How? How could it be her? She had seen, no, _watched_ her die. There had been no mistaking it. Weiss had been dead.

"People of Oribor," the sergeant started. "I have a special treat for you all today! Something we have not had the pleasure of removing from our world for a long time!"

He turned and pointed at Weiss. She glared back.

"Weiss Schnee! I name you vampire!"

The crowd broke out in a frenzy. Shoes and vegetables were thrown. Weiss simply glared at the crowd, standing still and unflinching as she endured their abuse.

"Proof! We want proof!" someone shouted.

The guard behind Weiss stepped forward and pulled her lips apart. Her teeth were pointed and sharp. The crowd screamed louder. One of them attempted to climb up onto the platform with a knife, but the guard standing at the edge put a boot in the man's face and sent him back into the crowd with a spray of blood.

"Calm! I demand calm!" the sergeant shouted. "I will have order!"

The crowd did not quiet for almost a minute. But eventually, they did. One last shoe was thrown at Weiss, hitting her in the stomach. She grunted, but otherwise did not move or appear fazed. Her glare was undaunted and unbroken. She looked proud, regal even, in the shining sun. And for some reason, up there in front of the screaming crowd that wanted her blood, tied up and humiliated and about to die for certain this time, Ruby's heart went out to her. It was a strange sensation.

"Weiss Schnee," the guard sergeant started, "for the crimes of deceit, the murder of several innocents of Oribor, entering the city without registering, and being a _vampire_ ," he said the word with poison, "you have been sentenced to a rightful death. Justice to Oribor."

The crowd cheered once more. Ruby felt anxious. Agitated. Like she should move, do something, help these people. But she didn't know what to do. She needed Weiss dead anyway, right? Didn't the sergeant say she had killed innocents? If a stabbing didn't do it, then a hanging would for sure. She knew vampires well enough to know they needed air just like any human. And they died just as much as a human did when you broke their necks. She knew that for certain. She had done it herself.

"Citizens of Oribor!" the sergeant called. "These villains and criminals, and their crimes, have been named, and their sentences decreed! Death by hanging!"

The crowd cheered and yelled. The black birds overhead seemed to caw and crow along with them. The guard sergeant put his hand on the lever. The crowd quieted. Even the birds went silent. In that busy, crowded, packed to bursting city square in the middle of Oribor, there was silence. The two men at the gallows hung their heads in resignation. Arnold was crying. Weiss was the same as she had been. Her glare hadn't faded one bit. Ruby knew that if she could, Weiss would kill every single person in that square. And Ruby understood the feeling. She sympathized with her.

The sergeant drew a deep breath, then spoke with an undertaker's voice. "Justice to Oribor."

He pulled the lever. The floors went out underneath the three prisoners. They dropped a few feet then jerked to a halt, the nooses around their necks pulled taut. They struggled involuntarily, even Weiss. Their legs kicked and jerked. The sounds of their gasps and final breaths filled the too-hot air.

Arnold went first. Then Weiss. Then Madrigal. One by one, their struggles ceased. Their eyes, full of fear and terror – even Weiss' – went lifeless and glassy. Ruby flashed back to the alley. This was the second time she had seen Weiss' eyes like that. Ruby's heart, for some strange reason, plummeted to the bottom of her stomach.

Weiss was dead. This time for certain.

But just like before, there was no surge of revenge-fueled satisfaction or happiness. Yang was still just as dead. And Weiss' death, for sure this time, still wasn't making her feel any better about it. Her heart was just as empty and vacant as before.

The guard sergeant raised his hand. The crowd cheered. The edges started to disperse as the spectacle ended and people went back to their day. People started moving out of the square. Ruby moved further in, towards the gallows. She had to get a closer look at Weiss.

The last remnants of the crowd were leaving, even the guards, when Ruby finally got to the hanging platform. There was only one guard left, standing by the stairs. He looked at her pointedly, his hand on the hilt of his sword. He had the look of a vulture, pointed nose and all. It was unnerving.

"Can I help you with something?" he said.

"Um, yeah. I was just wondering, I'm new to Oribor and- and I'm trying to learn more about the city, so I was just wondering what you guys do with the bodies of these criminals?"

The guard raised his eyebrow. "That's a weird question to ask. Nothing special anyway, we just leave 'em here for a few days, then take them to the grave-pit at the north side outskirts of the city and toss 'em in with the rest of the bodies. They got mass burial pyres burning there all day and night. It might be a week or so, but they'll get their turn at being burned. Why?"

"Oh, nothing," Ruby sheepishly replied. "Like I said, I'm just trying to learn more about the city. Stuff like how you guys handle your dead interests me."

"S _uuure_ ," the guard drawled. "You ain't one of them necrophiliac loonies, are you? Those freaks that're attracted to dead people?"

Ruby blanched. "Ew, gross, what the hell no! I was just curious."

The guard smirked. "Yeah, whatever. Anyway I gotta get back to the guard house, my shift is over and I need a nap. Stay safe and all that. Don't let this city kill you like it did them." He jerked his thumb at the hanging bodies.

"Yeah, thanks sir. Sorry for bothering you."

He nodded, turned away, and was a few feet out of the square when Ruby suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, sir!" she called.

He turned, looking slightly aggravated. "Yeah?"

"Uh, that vampire, Weiss. The guard chief guy said she killed a few people. Who did she murder?"

The guard laughed. "Heh, probably no one. We just pinned some unrelated murders that happened recently on her. But hey, she's a vampire, right? She's probably got victims around here anyway, we just haven't found them yet. Now I really gotta go. Seeya."

He turned and walked away.

Ruby frowned. So Weiss hadn't even killed anyone here. She had been framed. She had simply been running and trying to find her way back to the castle in the mountains, to her father. She turned and looked up at Weiss' motionless, bound form, swinging gently back and forth from the noose. Her eyes were open in frozen fear.

Ruby's frown deepened. Weiss didn't deserve this. A day like this, hanging out in the open for everyone to see, then a trip to the burial pits for a nameless cremation? It didn't sit right with her. As far as she knew, Orson was right. Weiss was probably the one good vampire she had ever met. Good enough that she deserved, at the very least, a proper burial. Ruby only knew how to give burials like they did in Tenebrous, with a few words of benediction and a short prayer, but it would have to be good enough. And even with all that aside, something in her heart simply couldn't just leave Weiss hanging like that, on display for the city to see. Maybe it was because she was her last link to Yang. Maybe it was because she had been framed. Hell, maybe it was just because she had a pretty face.

Either way, Ruby found a bench at the edge of the square, set her pack down, sat, and waited for nightfall.

* * *

Night came slowly.

Ruby would have preferred to rest her head and drift into a shallow sleep, but she didn't dare let that happen. Not in Oribor. So instead she sat, twiddled her thumbs, polished her scythe, and waited. She managed to only think about Yang once.

The clock read one twenty-seven at night before she deemed the streets empty enough for her to carry out her mission. Guard patrols roved by occasionally, but they had not disturbed her so far. There were other beggars in the square too, sleeping out on the streets, in the cold blowing in from the docks and the sea.

She stood, slowly, and stretched out her limbs. A breeze blew by her, rank with the smell of fish. She wrinkled her nose.

"I hate this place," she muttered.

She replaced the cloth wrapping over the blade of her scythe, folded it, put it into her pack, and then picked her pack up. Casually, she made her way over to the gallows, glancing around to make sure no one was watching. The other beggars didn't seem interested. And there were no guards to be seen.

She climbed up atop the wooden platform and made her way over to Weiss. She said a quick benediction over the other two men, hopefully commending their souls to a less cruel afterlife. She reached Weiss, and for a second simply stared at her. She was dead as dead could be. Her throat was bruised and purple. Her eyes were as lifeless as a doll's. And yet still, she somehow remained entrancing, albeit in a very morbid way. Beauty in death, as they said. She didn't look like such a monster right then.

She lifted Weiss' not-so-surprisingly light body with one arm around the vampire's waist and undid the noose with the other. She had been expecting to carry Weiss over her shoulder, but the girl was even lighter than she had considered. She could carry her bridal style very easily. She really only even needed one arm. And the girl was already stiff, thankfully, and not limp.

She hopped down from the gallows platform, stumbling a step before recovering her balance. An owl hooted at her from atop the clock-tower. She looked around again, made sure no one was watching her. One of the beggars was. She reached in her pocket and tossed him a coin, then put her finger over her lips and winked. He raised an eyebrow, but nodded.

She flexed her shoulders, pulled Weiss' limp body closer to her chest, and started the long walk out of Oribor.

She got five steps before she realized that if a guard stopped her and asked her what she was doing with a body, she would have no way to explain herself. She frowned and looked around. An idea popped into her head, something Yang would definitely have done.

She walked back over to the beggar she had tipped. "Excuse me sir, but you wouldn't happen to have a beer bottle, would you?"

He blinked and frowned, the expression almost lost in his scraggly grey beard. "Well I might. That depends miss. What do you want it for?"

"Oh, you know, just stuff. I can pay you for it."

He was silent for several moments, then pulled a beer bottle from the bundle of belongings by his feet. He popped the cap with his teeth and downed the entire bottle in less than five seconds. He burped, then proffered the bottle to her.

"Wow, I'm impressed," Ruby said. She held out three more coins. "Here. Is that enough?"

He shrugged. "Enough to buy three more beers, so yeah I'd say so."

She grinned and took the bottle. He grinned and took the coins.

Ruby set Weiss down on the ground. She took the bottle, pried open Weiss' stiff fingers, and then closed them around the handle of it. After that she opened her pack, removed a piece of cloth, and then tied it tightly around Weiss' head like a hood. It hid her white hair from view, in the same way a regular peasant woman would wrap her head for work. Then she turned, thanked the beggar, picked Weiss up, and made her way out of the square and into the street.

"Be safe out there!" the beggar called as she left.

She wasn't stopped by the guards once. All they saw was a stumbling girl carrying a passed-out drunk woman clutching an empty bottle in her hand. Apparently, it was a common sight in Oribor.

The streets weren't very empty either. She saw supply caravans, guard patrols, packs of menacing-looking men, and other drunkards too. And they didn't look to be pretending.

The guard at the side gate she had come in to the city from stopped her. She held out a few coins and told him her name.

He grinned at the coins, flipped through his book of names, and nodded. "Yeap, Ruby Rose. You just carrying your friend there back home? She looks pretty gone."

"Yeah," Ruby laughed. "I'd say she's had enough for one night. We don't live very far, so I'll be fine."

"Alright, well you be safe out there then."

Ruby nodded. "Thanks. I will."

And with that she exited Oribor, and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. She started walking.

The countryside was riddled with run-down cottages, sparsely lit by lamps, and she already liked it a hundred times more than Oribor. Mainly because it didn't reek of fish and garbage. The air was much cleaner, and much colder.

The moon was high and bright overhead, as big as she had ever seen it. She was tempted to see if Weiss' hair shone in the moonlight too, but didn't want to risk uncovering her distinctive white locks. So she simply continued down the wide, dusty road. The wind howled and blew in from the sea and swirled whorls of dust around her.

She walked what she judged to be two miles before stopping. She glanced around discreetly, trying to see if anyone was following or watching her. The night, thankfully, was clear, and she didn't have too much trouble seeing.

Nothing. Only her. The wind howled, and she shivered. She moved off the road into a nearby stand of trees, pushed through it, and came out the other end. A small dip in the ground in between three small hills seemed to be the perfect spot. She sighed and gently set Weiss' body down. She pulled a small shovel out of her pack. She always kept one with her. Nothing was handier for building shelters out of dirt or snow. The edge was even sharpened so that she could cut branches with it. No dirty work like that would ever despoil her Crescent Rose, if she had any say about it.

She sank the shovel into the soft earth, smiled at her good fortune, and started digging a grave.

Minutes passed. She worked and sweated, huffed heavy breaths and kept digging. It felt good, after those days in Oribor with no exercise. She liked how her muscles burned. It only meant they would be stronger the next day. The wind howled and blew the whole time like an angry spirit. Almost as if it had a voice.

She heaved the last shovelful of dirt out of the grave, stepped inside just to make sure it was deep enough, then climbed back out, satisfied with her work. She set the shovel down and slowly walked over to where she had left Weiss, propped up against the side of one of the small hills.

She knelt down in front of her. "Well Weiss, this is where it ends for you," she muttered. "No way you're coming back from a hanging. Surviving the stabbing was impressive, I gotta give you that. You've gotta show me how that's done someday. But for now, farewell. If you go to the same place as Yang, say hi to her for me. And tell her I love her."

She reached forward to pick the dead vampire up. Her hands touched Weiss' shoulders.

Weiss' eyes snapped open.

* * *

 ** _Sorry for the inactivity. I stopped writing for a while, but now I'm back into it and really feeling it again. I'm really excited to write the rest of this story. Oh and for all you fags on the internet hate site 4channel's /u/ board calling me "based sangheilitat," thank you. I never really knew becoming based was one of my life goals until it happend. #TYBG_**

 ** _Drop a review if you liked it. Tell me how you liked Oribor. I love feedback._**

 ** _Oh, and cover image done by Moekumo. Thanks pet._**


	4. Chapter 4 - Beginning of the End

Weiss' eyes snapped open.

Ruby stumbled backwards and fell on her ass. The pale-haired vampire struggled to her feet, gasping for breath and making panicked noises. She tried to turn around, but collapsed in a heap. She looked like she was trying to rise again, but her arms were merely shaking and pushing against the ground.

Ruby just sat there, mouth agape, watching her.

"What. The hell." Ruby breathed. "What the hell? Weiss?"

The vampire was still struggling to rise. "G-Get away from me!" she screeched. Her voice was almost deafening in the dark night.

Ruby's instincts kicked in. She jumped forward and tackled Weiss, shoving a hand over her mouth to keep her from making any more noise.

"Shut the hell up!" Ruby hissed.

Weiss struggled with the strength of a newborn kitten for a few seconds, but eventually gave up. Ruby was still, and listened.

Silence. Silence and the wind. No shouts in the distance, no crackle of shifting leaves or snapping twigs.

Ruby let out a heavy breath. "Okay I'm going to uncover your mouth now, alright? And then please, please don't scream. I don't know what else is out here. Wolves, bandits, you name it. I'd rather not be dinner tonight. Okay?"

Weiss nodded after a hesitant second.

Ruby released her hand, but not her grip around Weiss' arms.

"Now let me go!" Weiss hissed. "Get your dirty hands off of me!"

Ruby looked down at her hands. "They're not that dirty. And sorry, but no can do. You're a vampire, I'm a vampire hunter, all that. I'm pretty sure you know how this whole thing works. Now I would have already killed you- I mean I've already tried a few times, but for now I just want answers. For instance, how the hell are you still alive?"

Weiss glared off into the distance, not saying a word.

Ruby groaned. "Oh come on, don't be that way, please? I just saved your life. Look, I don't like you any more than you like me, but I really need some answers here. I saw you get stabbed three times. I watched you die. And then, after that, I watched you get hung. You were dead. dead. I made sure myself. And yet here you are, alive and breathing and probably letting everything within two miles know we're here."

Ruby sat down next to Weiss, but kept a firm grip on her arm all the same. The vampire, reluctantly it seemed, didn't try to run anymore.

Weiss looked sidelong at her. "Wait a minute... you saw me get stabbed? In that alleyway? But you weren't one of those thugs. And how did you even find me anyway?"

"A friend helped me track you from that castle across the Drangors. It wasn't too hard," Ruby lied. "And in the alleyway, I was watching from a ledge a good ten feet above you. Pretty cool huh? Saw it all myself. You know for a vampire, you kind of suck at being evil and manipulating people and all. Probably the worst vampire I've ever met actually. Aren't you supposed to be the one doing the stabbing?"

Weiss scoffed. "Well I'm sorry I didn't get much opportunity to learn about who wants to stab me and who doesn't up in the Drangors. I didn't get to learn anything about humans. You're all strange."

Ruby made a face. "Wait, have you ever even been out of the Drangors? Did your father never let you out of that castle?"

"Not often," Weiss grumbled. Her eyes suddenly went wide. "Wait, my father! What happened to him! Tell me this instant!"

She started struggling again, but Ruby simply held her down. It didn't take much strength.

"Calm the heck down!" she hissed. "Are you stupid or something? Whoever's out there is gonna hear us!"

Weiss didn't want to seem to listen. But it was like holding down a small child. She had no force or weight behind her limbs at all.

Weiss growled and huffed and struggled and writhed, but Ruby wouldn't let up. So after almost a minute, the vampire stopped struggling and lay back down against the hill.

"Okay," Ruby started. "You're calm now?"

Weiss glared off into the darkness, but nodded.

Ruby rubbed the back of her neck with her free hand, the one that wasn't still clutching Weiss' arm. This was it. She was going to have to tell Weiss that she had killed her father. "Well it's uh, kinda sorta a long story. Like a lot of stuff happened."

Weiss glared up at her like she was an idiot. "I know. I was there you dolt."

"Right, right" Ruby chuckled nervously. How was she supposed to say it?

Weiss narrowed her eyes. "He's dead, isn't he?"

Ruby's eyes went wide. "W-What? No, I mean... well... kinda. Yeah."

Weiss remained remarkably calm. She closed her eyes and took several long, deep breaths. "How did it happen?" she muttered.

Ruby was silent for several seconds. She sat back, releasing her grip on Weiss' arms. "Well, I came back to the keep after you disappeared on me. I still wanna know about that, by the way. I went in through the window, and... and I watched your father kill my sister. Yang. He killed Yang."

Thinking about Yang was different this time. There wasn't any anger, no hot surge of boiling blood. Just sadness. Just loss. She looked up at Weiss. The white-haired vampire was staring at her. Her expression had softened somewhat.

Ruby took a deep breath. "I tried to save her, but it was too late. I just... I got so angry. I've never been like that before. We fought. Me and your father. And I won. So yeah. I killed him. I killed your father."

Weiss slapped her across the face. Ruby took the blow without flinching. It didn't have any weight behind it. Weiss slapped her again. And again, and again. A trail of tears ran down her soot-smeared face. Ruby's heart went out to her, but after the fifth slap she grabbed Weiss' hand and held it still.

Weiss started sobbing silently, pulling her knees up and burying her head in between them. Ruby kept hold of the hand she had caught and let her cry. Weiss tried to pull her hand away with a weak jerk. Ruby let her.

The brown-and-red haired huntress let out a long sigh, and waited for the vampire whose father she had killed to stop crying, next to the grave she had dug for her. The irony of the moment did not escape her. Up above, dark clouds crept across the sky and swallowed the moon. The night deepened.

Weiss cried and shuddered for several long, drawn-out moments, her body wracked by fits of sobbing. The wind howled around them, but they were spared the chill of its touch in the hollow between the hills.

And slowly, eventually, Weiss stopped. The silence felt a vacancy. But then, in the midst of it, there was a noise. A small shuffling behind her.

Ruby looked down from the stars she had been watching and looked around. Nothing caught her eye. But there. What was that noise? The sound of a small crack, a snap, reached her ears. She moved into a crouch and listened hard, holding up her finger for Weiss to keep quiet. The lonely vampire was sniffling in the dark.

But besides that, silence. The stillness of the night. Ominous, foreboding stillness.

There came a whistling noise.

A sudden _thwack_ sounded next to Ruby's head. She jolted, looking at the tree branch next to her. The shaft of an arrow stuck out of it. More whistling. More thwacks and twangs. Adrenaline coursed through her veins. Arrows. She jumped forward and tackled Weiss onto the ground.

 _"Why am I helping her?"_ a voice in her head asked. She didn't know.

She grabbed Weiss and picked her up, quickly sprinting to the top of the nearest small hill and sliding down the other side. The thumps of arrows burrowing into soft dirt followed her, but they were wild and unfocused. The archers couldn't see in the dark either. They were probably only firing at where she had been. She dropped her pack, pulled her scythe out, and fully extended it, the _shunk-chunk_ sound echoing in the cold air. And she waited.

Silence. More stillness. Then, footsteps on the other side of the hill. She braced herself.

Suddenly, a scream out of the dark. The silhouette of a man came charging at her out of the gloom, a sword raised above his head. Ruby ducked low and swung upwards, feeling a hot spray of blood across her face as she carved through the man's stomach. His sword passed over her head. Screams of anger turned into screams of pain. Several more arrows whistled overhead as the man fell and collapsed on the ground behind her.

"Light, light, we need light," Ruby muttered, scrambling back to her pack and desperately searching it for a lamp or cloth, anything to create a light. She could hear shapes moving in the dark, rustling and shifting, and the snapping of branches. She couldn't see inside her pack, only feel. She risked a glance at Weiss. The girl was still curled in on herself.

"Hey, what the hell!" Ruby hissed. "You're a vampire right, and a ghostwalker and all that? Help us! We're both going to die if you don't do something!"

Weiss didn't move or respond. Did she not care because she, apparently, couldn't die? Ruby growled in frustration and kept searching. A twig snapped directly behind her. She spun and jumped backwards. The head of a heavy battleaxe _thunked_ into the ground where she had just been. The man holding it grinned at her, his armor a patchwork mess of leather and metal, strapped down and muffled. So that's how they had been moving so quietly.

And his armor was unmarked. Mercenaries. Or bandits. Common outside the city walls, especially with Oribor's current regime. This was what she had been trying to avoid. No one went outside Oribor at night.

"No one to save ya' girlie," he snarled. "If yah drop your weapon, we might just take ya' as a slave instead of killing ye'. How's that sound?"

Ruby didn't say a word, didn't move from her battle stance.

The man shrugged. "Can't sey I den't try."

He stepped forward, putting his weight into an axe swing that came at her at height height. Ruby tried the same trick as before, ducking under the swing and dashing under his guard. She didn't mange to complete her scythe swing before he brought his knee up into her gut. She grunted and rolled off to the left, landing heavily on the ground. She was disoriented in the dark. Disorientation brought fear. Her body screamed at her to move. She rolled right. The axe _thumped_ into the ground where her head had been half a second ago. She kicked out in the dark, connecting with something hard. There was a snap, like bone. Her boots were steel-toed. The man let out a sharp yelp and Ruby saw his silhouette collapse to the ground.

She scrambled to her feet and hefted her scythe for a killing blow. The man shifted and swung his axe at her leg. She only saw it because the moon peeked out from behind the clouds for a few seconds, and the blade of his axe glinted in the light. She jumped over it, completing her downward swing at the same time. The heavy blade of her scythe sank into his neck. He dropped his axe and clutched at his throat, his legs kicking out at her. She braced herself and ripped the scythe out. His throat went with it. He jolted once and then lay still.

She crouched down again, spinning around in an effort to find the next target. Neither of those men had had bows with them. Where were the archers? She heard the sound of bows being drawn, muffled commands, and looked up at the top of the hill. Three, no four archers were standing there. Two were aiming at her. Two were aiming directly down the hill at Weiss. Ruby reacted without thinking. She grabbed the axe of the man she had killed and hefted it at the two archers on the left, the ones aiming at her. It missed, of course, but they flinched. Their shots went wide. Things moved in slow motion.

The other two aiming directly at Weiss fired. And as they did, Weiss vanished off the face of the earth. The arrows sunk into dirt.

The archers started shouting and yelling, sounding panicked. Ruby took advantage of the distraction and rushed them, swinging her scythe with all her weight. The archers scrambled. One wasn't fast enough, and took a gouging blow to the side. He fell with a bloodcurdling scream. The other three drew short, curved swords and spread out around her. The clouds had passed. The night was clear now. The archers spread out around her, brandishing their blades. They knew how to work together, that much was clear. These men were not professionals, judging by how the axe throw had made them flinch, but they certainly weren't amateurs.

One of the men suddenly stared down at his sword, which was now pointing at his stomach. He let out a panicked yelp as it thrust forward and went through his midsection. He shrieked and dropped. The other two men shouted expletives and swung at the air around them. One of them was screaming about a ghost.

Weiss. She was ghost-walking. Ruby stepped forward, spinning her scythe around her and drawing the attention of the archers again. One turned to run. The other stayed put, a rather young looking man who had the eyes of someone with nothing to lose. He was good, better than the rest even. He met Ruby blow for blow, for almost five whole swings of her scythe. The fifth one caught his wrist and sliced it to the bone. He howled and dropped his sword. Her sixth swing parted his head from his body with a spray of blood.

Ruby hefted her scythe, crouched atop the hill, and watched the last man run while she caught her breath. He disappeared into the stand of trees she had passed through earlier, heading away from the road out of Oribor. She heard shouting. Panicked shouting. Then, answering shouts. Lots of them. And dimly, growing brighter, the glow of torches.

"Aw, crap," she muttered. "Weiss!" she hissed into the night. "We gotta go! That sounds like a lot of them!"

She spun around. No Weiss. No white hair. The shouting got louder, closer. She had to run, Weiss or not.

"Weiss, if you can hear me," she said, "I'm gonna run further into the hills. Follow me if you don't want to get captured."

With that, she turned away from the torch-lit woods and ran. Almost straight into Weiss. She stopped short with a startled yelp, staring at the vampire standing in front of her. The girl had blood running from her sleeve. She was glaring at Ruby with a look of disdain.

"Carry me," she croaked out. Her voice was hoarse and weak.

"W-What?" Ruby sputtered. "Carry you? The heck, what happened to-"

"Carry me out of here," Weiss hissed, "or I help those men find you."

Ruby made a hurt face. "Really? After I just saved your life?"

The shouting got closer. The glow of torches danced and moved through the trees. She could hear dozens of feet snapping branches and pushing through leaves. That was not something she could handle, not that many all at once.

Weiss' glare didn't falter. But behind the determination and anger, Ruby could see a cold glint of fear. Raw, naked, animal fear. Ruby honestly considered leaving her. But something made her stay. Something made her want to help, even after Weiss' threat.

Ruby growled and moved forward to put the girl over her shoulder. Weiss was light enough that she wouldn't have much trouble running. So she did. She took off in a sprint, moving away from the hills and the grave and the bodies of the men she and Weiss had killed. A large forest, dark and foreboding, loomed in front of her. She ran straight into it.

Weiss clung to her shoulder and back and tried to keep still. Her grip felt weak. She was as light as a sack full of snow.

And as Ruby ran through the trees, breathless and tired, somehow she knew Yang would have done the same thing. And in that moment, she suddenly felt closer to her sister than ever. She could almost hear her laugh. Her eyes watered up. She grit her teeth and kept running.

The shouting behind her grew ever more distant. The moonlight illuminated her path, shining through the branches of the forest she ran through. It almost looked like a dreamscape. For a second, she was in another world. Then she burst through the underbrush and out onto a wide dirt path. She couldn't hear shouting anymore.

But this was still lawless country. So she turned north, away from Oribor, and let her run slow into a gentle jog. Her chest heaved. Her lung burned. And still she kept moving, fueled by some strange desire to keep Weiss safe; a vampire hunter with a vampire clutching weakly to her shoulder.

* * *

She lost track of how far and how long she had run. Her best guess was maybe thirty minutes. She was glad Weiss weighed so little. If she had weighed more, she knew she wouldn't have made it half that long.

She thought Weiss was unconscious. She wasn't sure. It was hard to tell through the darkness and the fog of exhaustion clouding her mind. She wasn't sure why she stopped running. Something deep down told her it was okay. Something told her it was safe. Yang had always told her to trust her instincts. So she stopped. She jogged a few feet, then slowed to a walk. She walked ten, eleven, twelve steps, then collapsed to her knees. Weiss fell from her shoulders into the dirt. Ruby panted and tried to catch her breath.

And it started raining.

Ruby, exhausted as she was, stood up and stretched her muscles out. The rain felt amazing on her sweat-soaked skin. She didn't know what time it was, but her best guess was around two or three.

She only stopped for a minute. After that, her instincts told her it was time to move again, time to find someplace safe to rest. The middle of the road wasn't one. And in her running, she had only moved even further into bandit country.

The trees around her, around the main road, were thick and tall and old. The forest made noise at night. Branches swaying, creatures hunting, leaves rustling. And over all else, the drizzle and patter of the rain. But at least the moon was out. She could only see a little, but it was better than nothing.

She trudged her way over to Weiss and rolled the vampire over. Her eyes were closed, but she was breathing. Ruby frowned. There was a dried trail of blood running down the girl's arm. She pulled the sleeve of Weiss' grey tunic up to the shoulder. There, running from her shoulder down her arm, about three inches long, was a deep cut. The light drizzle was making it start to run again.

Ruby tried to think about when Weiss could have gotten it. When she was ghostwalking? Sometime after? Maybe she had cut herself on a branch when Ruby was running through the forest? But no, the cut was too clean and too clinical. It was precise. Ruby narrowed her eyes. Nothing occurred to her. She couldn't think of any way Weiss might have gotten this mysterious wound out of nowhere.

"Well, guess it's just another question I'm gonna ask you later," she grumbled, and hefted the limp vampire over her shoulders. It was much harder this time. She felt much heavier this time.

She started walking, but this time off to the side of the road, where she could easily disappear into the undergrowth if she saw or heard anyone. She wasn't in any condition to fight. She needed shelter, some place to rest and wait for daylight, so she could finally get her bearings and find out where exactly she was.

She walked for a while, maybe ten minutes or so, until she saw a dirt path leading off into the underbrush of the forest. She thought she saw a dim shape through the trees as well, and she decided to take the path. It struck her as something Yang would have done.

Sure enough, a dark wooden shack resolved itself out of the misty rain and shadow. It looked small, only big enough to contain a room or two, but seemed in relatively good repair. There was only one window and one door, both facing the path. She set Weiss down against a nearby tree and circled the shack cautiously, watching and listening for any sign of movement, both from inside the shack and out.

Nothing. She breathed a quiet sigh of relief as she finished circling it and ended back by Weiss. She crept up to the window and peeked inside. It was dark, too dark to see. But she didn't hear any movement. She moved to the door and creaked it open.

"Hello?" she whispered. "Anyone inside? I'm just a traveler, I won't hurt you."

Silence answered her.

She pushed the door open further, letting moonlight shine inside. There wasn't much. A single wooden bedframe with a mattress, a wooden writing desk with a turned over lamp on it, and a small iron cooking stove in the corner with a wood pile next to it.

Ruby frowned. Where had the inhabitants gone?

She crept back outside and retrieved Weiss, carefully carrying the vampire inside and depositing her on the mattress. She then shut the door as quietly as possible. The room went dark again. She set her pack down and after much fumbling around, produced a set of matches and lit the lamp after setting it upright. A gentle glow suffused the room. All of a sudden she didn't feel so threatened anymore. Still, she took off her rain-soaked cloak and hung it over the window, tucking it into the edges so that hopefully anyone outside wouldn't see the light.

She looked over at the iron stove, and at the wood pile next to it. The possibility of warmth gave new life to her wet and exhausted body. She had the wood inside the stove and the contraption lit as quickly as her numb fingers would allow. The logs burned slowly but steadily, and soon a wave of warmth and heat joined the glow of the lamp.

Ruby let out an ecstatic giggle and held her hands up to the stove. The heat emanating from it was, without a doubt, the best thing she had ever felt.

She looked around again, this time noticing a note on the desk next to an inkpot and pen. Curious, she shuffled over to it and picked it up.

" _Kayle_ ," it read.

" _I'm going out. I can't wait here any longer. It's been two weeks now. I don't know what happened to you, but I'm going to find out. If you come back and find this note, I went to look for you in Oribor. I love you._ "

Ruby felt her heart sink. The note was dated almost five months ago. There was no way that story had a happy ending. But at least it solved the mystery of the empty shack.

"So when are you going to kill me?"

Ruby jumped, banged her hand on the desk, yelped, and fell down on the ground.

"Really?" Weiss continued. "This is the vampire hunter who almost killed me? How did you ever manage that?"

"Well," Ruby got out through clenched teeth as she clutched her throbbing fingers, "I'm not so freaking clumsy with a scythe, obviously! And you should be thanking me! I just saved your life, remember!"

Weiss, sitting up on the bed, gazed at her with a very evident disdain. The rain in her wet hair made it glint and shimmer. Ruby almost stared. Almost. Her cheeks flushed.

"Fair enough," Weiss replied. "But you didn't answer my question. You already killed my father. So when are you going to kill me?"

Ruby shrugged. She moved to the wall next to the stove and sat back against it. Weiss pulled her knees to her chest, watching her, waiting.

Ruby sighed. "Well, I dunno really. I mean, watching you die twice was kind of enough for me. And yeah you're a vampire and all, but don't lie to me. You were framed in Oribor, right?"

Weiss nodded.

"You haven't really killed anyone, right? I heard you talking to your father in that castle. You were saying how he was wrong for killing all those villagers."

Weiss nodded again. "That's true. Father was wrong for that. He and his followers managed to ambush humans for many, many years, but only because they were careful and selective. This winter was too much. We started running out of blood. So they started taking humans from further and further away, in larger groups, from places they would be noticed. And eventually, a village did notice. Some of them even saw Father and his coven. So he killed them." Weiss looked down at the bed. "Every single last one, and burned the village down on top of them. And that's what led you and your band of Hunters to us, right?"

Now it was Ruby's turn to nod. "Pretty much. And yeah, normally I have no problem killing vampires, cuz they prey on innocents. But you, I'm kind of having trouble with. I haven't met a vampire that hasn't wanted to kill people before. I'm not sure what to do with you."

Weiss shrugged. "Try to kill me again. Dump me in a river when you do. Sell me off as a slave to those bandits. I don't really care."

Ruby flinched. "Okay, I'm never going to sell anyone to bandits. I'm not that heartless and evil."

"Are you sure?" Weiss muttered with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes!" Ruby exclaimed. "People who do that are just, just horrible! I'm not like that, I only hunt vampires to protect people! It's just you're so much of a freaking problem that I don't know what to do! Why can't you just be like the others and attack someone so I can finish you off!"

Weiss only glared at her.

Ruby continued. "Oh but wait, you probably wouldn't even die then! You've been stabbed, mugged, and hung," she counted off on her fingers, "and yet here you are, sitting on this bed and glaring at me like you could somehow be mad at me for saving your life instead of leaving you hanging on the noose!"

Weiss looked away, out the window. Her eyes burned with anger.

Ruby let out a heavy sigh. "Look, I answered your questions right? Why I haven't tried to kill you again, and how we found your castle? So can you answer one of mine?"

Weiss deigned to look at her again. "Answer one more then. Why _didn't_ you just leave me hanging from the noose? Why did you save me and bring me here? Why didn't you let those bandits have me? You said I'm a bad vampire earlier, but doesn't all that make you a bad vampire hunter?"

Ruby realized she didn't have the answer to that. She stared into the fire, thinking hard.

"Okay," she started, "you're right. I honestly don't know. I think it's because you're different than all the other vampires, and I'm curious about you and all that. When I see a vampire, I normally want to kill them. And I know why. They're evil, they prey on people, and they have to be stopped. So it's easy." She turned and looked at Weiss. "But with you, I don't feel that. I don't feel like killing you. You're a puzzle. And my friend Orson, the one that helped me track you across the mountains, told me not to kill you. He told me to give you a chance and see what happened. So I guess, yeah. I guess I'm giving you a chance."

Weiss rolled her eyes. "A chance at what? A chance at finding out which way I'm going to die next time?"

Ruby narrowed her eyes. "Hey, I answered your question. It's your turn to answer."

Weiss stared at her for a hard second, but then tilted her head. "Fine. Ask."

"So the big question. Why aren't you dead?" Ruby said. "And why haven't you tried to kill _me_ yet?"

"You only get one question," Weiss replied with a condescending sneer. "Pick."

"Fine, jerk. If we're going one for one, then why haven't you tried to kill me yet? I guess that's more pressing."

Weiss pulled her knees tighter to her chest. "Because I can't. Do you see how weak I am? I can barely lift myself off of this bed right now, let alone try to fight you again. And if I couldn't beat you the first time, how would I even begin to figure out how to beat you now?"

Ruby frowned. "Why are you so weak? Does it have something to do with dying twice?"

"Are you serious? Have you ever had your muscles go into rigor mortis because you died?"

"Oh. Yeah, guess that makes sense. Fair enough. But if you could, would you try to kill me right now?"

Weiss looked out the window. She hesitated. But it seemed somehow forced. Ruby frowned.

"Maybe," Weiss muttered. "I don't know. You _did_ kill my father."

"Yeah, well he killed my sister. So it's just payback. Besides, you didn't agree with what your father was doing, right?"

Weiss' eyes snapped onto her. "That doesn't mean you should have killed him for it!"

"Really Weiss?" Ruby leaned back against the wall. "He preyed on innocent humans just trying to survive in those mountains for years and years, then burned down and slaughtered an entire village, men, women, and children, right? How are you going to try and justify that?"

Weiss didn't. She simply looked down at the bed and furrowed her brow. Silence reigned for a few moments, until the vampire spoke again.

"Fine. You're right, I can't justify it. If I look at this from a logical perspective, you did the right thing. At least what seems right. My father had to be stopped. And I wouldn't say I loved him, but I didn't hate him either. And even still, he was my father. He was blood. I can't just overlook that."

Ruby shrugged. "Fair enough."

"But," Weiss continued, "I suppose you did try your best to save my life when you took me down from that noose, and with the bandits. So if we're going one for one here, no, I won't try to kill you. You saved my life, so I'll spare yours."

Ruby snorted. "Yeah, like you could kill me if you tried."

Weiss glared at her. "You can't win every time. And I don't die, remember?"

"Yeah, about that. That's the big question. How _did_ you not die?"

Weiss looked up at the ceiling for a moment. "Fine. My father told me I should never tell this to a non-vampire, but I don't really see the point right now. You seem like a fairly honest person, so I'll have you give me your word that you won't use it against me. Unlike most vampires, I don't see humans as cattle. I think I can trust you."

"Good to know," Ruby said. She stared Weiss in the eyes. Storm-cloud grey met iceberg blue. "You have my word. I won't try to kill you, or use this information against you. But on one condition. That you won't go around killing people like other vampires do. I know plenty of other hunters, and they'd be happy to kill you if I asked."

"That sounds fair," Weiss agreed. "You do know I have to drink blood at least once every few months though, right?"

Ruby nodded. "Yeah, I know. I'm a vampire hunter, remember? If you don't drink blood every few months you go crazy and insane and just attack people, then drink all their blood right?"

"The night of blood," Weiss said in a dull monotone. "Is what it's called. And yes, the blood calms our urges and instincts. It also makes us less powerful, or better put, it inhibits our powers. A vampire who's blood-starved and on a rampage is a force to be reckoned with."

"Yeah, I've put a few down myself."

Weiss frowned at that.

"I mean like, I've had to stop a few blood-starved vampires, you know? And wasn't your whole castle full of them?"

"They weren't blood-starved yet. But yes, they were getting close. It was why my father raided that village."

"Ah. Makes sense. When you need to feed, I guess we'll figure something out." Ruby started talking with her hands. "Cuz I know you're a vampire and I'm a vampire hunter and all that, but I'll stick with you for a while or something just to make sure that you don't kill anyone, but I've also got to make sure you don't do anything crazy so I'm kind of responsible for you but, oh wait! How are you still alive! You never told me!"

The barest hint of amusement glimmered in Weiss' eyes. "I'd tell you if you stopped rambling."

Ruby sat back down against the wall. "Yeah. Right. Go ahead."

"So, I'm a ghostwalker. I figure you know that."

Ruby nodded.

"So what do you know about ghostwalkers, exactly?"

"Well," Ruby started, "they can go invisible whenever they want, and they're pretty dang old. Not old like age, but I mean they've been around for a while. They're kinda rare these days too. Oh, they can only go invisible for a few minutes though, otherwise they get really tired and kind of drop out of it."

Weiss raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that?"

"Eh, I've fought a few ghostwalkers in my hunting career. I've been around."

"And how long exactly, have you been hunting?" Weiss asked.

Ruby put her finger on her chin. "Um, let's see, I think almost ten years now?"

"And how old are you?" Weiss appeared incredulous.

"I'm twenty," she answered. "Yeah, I've been hunting since I was ten. Vampires killed my mom, and me and Yang got kind of taken into the fold by the Hunters who rescued us. I've been doing it as long as I remember. Course I didn't actually start fighting vampires until I was seventeen or so, but I got pretty good at tracking them in the meantime."

Weiss looked almost sad. "Ah. I'm sorry about your mother."

Ruby shrugged it off. "No biggie. I've gotten over it. I mean yeah I miss her and all, and I'm gonna make her proud and protect people, but I know she'd be proud of me. But back on topic! You still haven't told me how you lived!"

"Fine, I'll cut right to it. You're right, ghostwalkers can only go invisible for a few minutes at a time, and they can be killed just as easily as a regular vampire. Magnesium burns them too, just like all other vampires. Yes, I should have been killed in that alleyway. And when I woke up, or came back to life, a group of guards found me, and in the course of searching me discovered my pointed teeth. Which of course, led to my hanging. And that didn't kill me either. Yes, ghostwalkers can die just as easily as a vampire."

The rain intensified. The pitter-patter on the window and the roof turned into a steady drumming. Ruby looked at the window for a second. Weiss stopped for a moment as well, then continued.

"I'm not a regular ghostwalker, however. I'm a pureblood ghostwalker."

Ruby cocked her head to the side. "A pureblood?"

Weiss nodded. "Vampires are old. Incredibly old. But we're dying out, and we've lost most of our history and traditions. Some say that ghostwalkers are random mutations. Others say they're in the blood. I know the second one to be true. My father and his father, and his father and his father were all ghostwalkers. And my father told me that if a family lineage like that manifests the ghostwalker trait that many times in a row, a pureblood can be born. It only happens every dozen centuries or so."

Weiss was silent for a while. Ruby thought.

"That's why he kept me hidden away in that castle," Weiss muttered. "He was trying to protect me and keep me safe."

Ruby furrowed her brow. "So what makes you different, exactly?"

"Well for starters, I can't die. As you've seen. My father told me about it, but I only got to find out if he was right or not when I was stabbed. It's rather... disconcerting. It feels like I'm sleeping almost, but lost in a terrifying dream until I wake. Also, I can ghostwalk for as long as I want. I... I don't know how to describe it. I can still see my body, but the world goes shades of black and grey and white. Things appear blurry around the edges. And you see things. Things moving in the distance, like they're watching you. Shapes. Blurs of movement. It's unnerving. And when I come out of it... there's a cost."

Weiss held up her arm and pulled her sleeve up, revealing the large, almost surgical cut running down from her shoulder.

Ruby stared. "I was gonna ask you how you got that."

Weiss stared at it too. She looked frightened. "My father called it The Toll. Every time I come back into the real world from ghostwalking, there's a long cut somewhere on my body. This is just the newest one. I have two on my back, and one on my leg. But I don't know any more than that. I don't know why I get these wounds, or what gives them to me. I just know it's the cost of a pureblood ghostwalking."

The room suddenly seemed darker, colder. Ruby shivered a little, despite her closeness to the fire. She noticed Weiss seem to shudder too. She seemed so fragile right then, so pale in that moment. And still, she was beautiful. For some reason, Ruby wanted to protect her. She could almost taste the irony.

Ruby motioned to the stove. "Would you like to uh, get some of the fire?"

Weiss stared at her for a hard second, narrowing her eyes like she was trying to figure out if Ruby was lying or not.

"I mean," Ruby backpedaled, "it's a lot warmer over here and your clothes still look pretty wet from the rain and all, so uh... you can come over here by the fire." She patted the spot next to her. "Vampires don't like being cold any more than humans do, right?"

Weiss continued eyeing her, but after a few awkward seconds, slowly stood up. She shuffled her way over to the fireplace, the creaking of her footsteps echoing in the small room. Ruby coughed and looked at the fire. Weiss gently lowered herself down next to her, but as far away as she could be without missing out on the heat. The vampire slowly raised her hands and held them out in front of the flame.

And for some reason, Ruby felt the barest corner of a smile tug at her face. She ignored it. But something inside her was just happy that another person was a little warmer that night. Did that mean she considered Weiss a person, and not just a vampire? Maybe. She didn't know.

"So what are you going to do with me now?" Weiss muttered.

The rain tap-tap-tapped against the window, the fire crackled and sparked, and the darkness seemed to recede a little from the corners of the room while Ruby thought. Both said nothing for a long while.

Then: "Well, I'm not totally sure," Ruby began. "I mean I promised I wasn't going to kill you, and I'm gonna stay true to my word. But I'm not going to just leave you by yourself either. What kind of vampire hunter would I be if I let you loose after capturing you?"

Weiss frowned at the fire. "You captured me?"

"Could you run away right now?" Ruby replied with a smirk.

"I could go invisible."

"And I would tackle you the moment that door started magically opening on its own. It'd be kind of hard to miss."

Weiss huffed, sounding frustrated. "Fine, you captured me. Congratulations. What now?"

Ruby hummed in thought. "Well, I'm going to head back to the village where Yang and I lived for a while. Tenebrous. It's a good ways to the north. Not too far, but a good half a week's journey. I guess I could just take you with me."

Weiss looked at her dubiously. "And what's preventing me from just running away once I recover in a day or two?"

Ruby shrugged. "Well, yeah you could. But I figure I'm your only chance out here. You're not with your father and his clan anymore, and pretty much everywhere you go people are probably going to find out you're a vampire and try to kill you again. So you can keep dying and dying and dying, or you can just stick with me, and I'll protect you."

"You'll... protect me? Why on earth would you do that?" Weiss glared at her. "Do you take me for some sort of idiot?"

"Pfft, I think you're pretty smart. Not really street smart and a little naive, but you seem plenty smart. I'm just saying, since I'm not going to kill you, and I'm not going to leave you on your own, shouldn't I protect you? You'll be in my charge, after all. Maybe I'll just use this as a little experiment to see if all vampires really are evil." She looked over at Weiss and smiled. "Wanna try and prove me wrong?"

Weiss scoffed and looked back at the fire. Ruby stood up and brushed herself off.

"Welp, either way we're gonna need to rest here for the rest of the night. You need to get your muscles back in working order, and I'm pretty dang tired. So if you don't mind, please just let me sleep for a few hours, and then I'll take the rest of the watch alright?"

Weiss turned and watched her walk away, looking at her like she had just plunged her hand into the fire to see if it would burn.

"Yeah, yeah," Ruby said with a yawn and a wave as she settled down onto the room's only mattress. Her muscles were worn and tired. Just laying down felt fantastic. She pulled her scythe up close to her. "I know what you're thinking, 'could that idiot make it any easier for me to kill her in her sleep?'"

Weiss narrowed her eyes.

Ruby settled in, then turned over and smiled at the vampire she was sharing a room with. "Just letting you know though, I'm a pretty light sleeper. I'll hear that door opening, and I'll hear and feel you getting any closer to me than you are right now. Now I promised I wouldn't kill you and all, but I wouldn't mind breaking a few bones just to see how fast they heal. Okay?"

Weiss turned back to the fire and grumbled something about wishing she could actually die.

Ruby closed her eyes, but suddenly remembered one last thing."Oh, hey Weiss?"

Weiss cocked her head slightly, but didn't look away from the fire.

"How would someone actually kill you then? How would someone make sure you're actually dead?"

Weiss looked back at the fire. "I've told you too much already."

Ruby grinned, put her head down, and closed her eyes. She hadn't honestly expected that to work, but it was worth a shot. And then slowly, ever so slowly, she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

It was quick. Too quick, too fast. She woke suddenly to the sound of glass shattering, rain blowing in through the now-open window, and the wind howling around the cabin. She jumped out of bed with Crescent Rose at the ready, waiting for Weiss to attack her from any direction.

But nothing came.

She flung the door open and ran outside, crouching down and checking the ground underneath the window. Imprints from Weiss jumping from the window and landing. Footprints. Tiny, shallow footprints that were quickly being washed away by the rain. She couldn't possibly track them.

She cursed, swung Crescent Rose at a nearby sapling, and split it in half. She should have expected the window, she should have boarded it up. Why would Weiss even run? What chance did she stand out in this country, a nearly lawless backwater full of bandits and outlaws?

Ruby stormed inside, checking behind her just to make sure Weiss wasn't waiting for her to drop her guard. And then she saw the note on the table. It must have been written on the back of the one she had found earlier.

She picked it up. There wasn't much. Only a few sentences in flowing, cursive script.

 _"Did you really think I was going to just let my father's death go? You killed him. You saved my life, so I'll spare you now. But one day, I will kill you in return."_

Ruby, clutched her scythe, dropped the letter, and started laughing.

"Vampires really are all evil, huh?"

She chuckled and grinned as she picked up her pack and slung her scythe over her back. She took her cloak from the floor where it had fallen and pulled it over her head. It was wet. It was cold.

She didn't know whether to feel hurt, betrayed, happy, relieved, or upset. She had been starting to like Weiss. But it was probably for the better. A vampire and a vampire hunter traveling together wouldn't have ended well.

She walked out into the rain, back to the road. When she reached it she turned left and started walking, still smiling to cover up the strange emptiness in her chest. She didn't know which direction she was heading. She didn't particularly care.

* * *

 _ **Merry Christmas.**_


	5. Chapter 5 - End of the Beginning

_"One day, I will kill you in return."_

Weiss' words echoed in her head. They wouldn't leave her. They were echoes, ghosting around her and taunting her with the promise of death. A death that she wouldn't see coming.

So she did the only thing she really could. She waited.

For a week as she made the journey back to Tenebrous she watched her back, checking over her shoulder, stopping and listening every few minutes. She kept her scythe ready constantly.

That week passed. She made it to Tenebrous safe and sound.

For a month as she tried to get her and Yang's things in order, fix up the house they had lived in, and find her old contacts, she watched her back. She slept as light and little as possible. Her windows were always drawn and covered. Her doors were always locked.

That month passed. She grew anxious, restless in Tenebrous, and went out to start hunting again.

For a year she traveled the Dural Territories, helping villages and towns however she could, which was mostly by ridding them of their vampire problems. And even then, she still watched her back. She kept her ear to the ground, listening for rumors or stories of a girl with white hair. Whenever she asked she was almost hopeful, like a part of her wanted to see Weiss again. Her thoughts were conflicted, and she couldn't figure out why. A strange attraction. An alluring feeling when she thought of Weiss. She didn't like it.

But then that year too, passed. She saw nothing, heard nothing.

Her skills grew, her reflexes sharpened, and she trained and trained in preparation for the day Weiss would try to kill her again. She modified Crescent Rose so that she could load and fire crossbow bolts from the shaft almost like a rifle, instead of having to carry a heavy crossbow on her back. It was a simple bolt action mechanism, but it was effective.

She conditioned herself, running long distances, working her muscles to the point of exhaustion, and in every bar and tavern she went to she asked if there was anyone who wanted to have a sparring session. She won most of them, using the things Yang had taught her and creating her own techniques. She wasn't a very good ground fighter, but her stand-up would rival Yang's now. She toughened her body as well. After a year of sparring, she could take blows to the face and still maintain her focus.

She even taught herself how to _cook_. Life was difficult without an older sister.

Now, she knew she was ready for Weiss. She knew Weiss would have been training too, but she was ready. Any day now, she thought, Weiss would ambush her somewhere in some dark alleyway, trying to finish what her father had started.

And yet, months upon months passed. She slowly relaxed. After another year, making it two whole years of waiting, she stopped expecting an attack from Weiss. Slowly, ever so slowly, the alabaster-haired vampire slipped from her mind. The vampires she hunted in the meantime were much more pressing issues. She worked with other groups of Hunters, sometimes by herself, but she only encountered one other ghostwalker. And when she lopped off his head with a scythe blow and he died very obviously, he proved to not be a pureblood. It was strangely disappointing.

Time passed. Seasons came and went. The days grew shorter, then longer, then shorter again. And bit by bit by seemingly insignificant bit, she forgot about Weiss.

Life changed. She grew happier, less tense. Her friends in Tenebrous helped. She even started training some of the children in the village to defend themselves. Vampires stopped being such a threat in the Dural Territories; the loose alliance of democratic cities and towns that both Tenebrous and Oribor belonged to. Roving bands of vampire hunters and trained village militia contributed to that. But even after so long, some nights, deep in the dark, she dreamed of Weiss' face. When she woke she pretended it hadn't happened. And so it went.

So nearly two years later on a chilly autumn day, when she returned to her house in Tenebrous for a small bit of rest and found a note pinned to her door asking for help with a vampire problem, she didn't think anything of it. The townspeople knew she was a vampire hunter. It wasn't much of a surprise.

 _Dear Miss Rose_ , the note read. The handwriting was messy. An inkstain marked the corner.

 _My name is Anne. I'm from a city called Altar, in the Jaestin Empire. My uncle told me you're a vampire hunter. I'm writing to you for help. People have been disappearing from my city for weeks now. There are vampire hunters here already, but they say there are no vampires. But they're lying, I've seen them myself. My uncle says maybe a vampire hunter that's not from the Empire can help us. Can you please come to my city?I know the journey is long, but we have money, and we can pay you. Thank you._

 _~Anne_

Ruby frowned. If there were vampire hunters already in Altar, why would she need help? Why did the Jaestin Empire need help from the Dural Territories? The Empire was generally regarded to be much better off than the Durals.

She stepped inside her house – the one she had once shared with Yang – and dropped her gear. The house wasn't much, a simple two-story affair with a single bedroom, a kitchen, dining room, sitting room, and bathroom upstairs. She had converted the downstairs bedroom into a workshop where she could tinker on various weapons and gadgets. And Crescent Rose. She did a _lot_ of tinkering on Crescent Rose.

She set the note down on her dining room table and moved into the kitchen. The walls were heavy oak, warm and brown and safe. The walls were painted green, and she had doodled various scenes of trees and forests on them in her spare time. Her house felt like a sanctuary, her safe place where the outside world, cold and cruel and ugly as it was, couldn't reach. She picked a loaf of bread from her cabinets and at down at the table, putting her feet up on it and staring at the note as she ate.

Why would vampire hunters already be in Altar, and yet not hunting vampires? Maybe the girl was wrong though, this Anne. Maybe she had only seen what she thought were vampires. But then what explained the disappearances? She didn't know much about Altar. A medium-sized city to the east, on the western edge of the Jaestin Empire, and a growing trade hub if she remembered correctly. She had only heard about it from traders passing through Tenebrous.

She chewed slowly and let out a low chuckle.

She knew in her bones that she would soon be traveling to Altar, no matter what her thoughts told her. If someone needed help, there was no way she could refuse. No matter how far away it was. And besides, there wasn't much going on in the small village of Tenebrous either. Or around it, for that matter. Most of the vampires in the area had been hunted down and exterminated long ago. The only reason she hadn't moved was because this had been Yang's house. She couldn't bring herself to leave it.

She sighed, looked at Crescent Rose sitting by the doorframe, and grabbed an empty traveling pack from a shelf in her living room.

And slowly, taking her time and humming a gentle tune, she packed her things for a journey to Altar. A journey to the Empire. She had never been there before, but someone had once told her there was a first time for everything under the sun.

* * *

The journey took weeks. Her first stop was the closest large town to Tenebrous, a old mining encampment aptly named Gristle. There she stopped, stocked up on supplies, traded stories, and found out where exactly on the map Altar was. And last but not least, how to get there. Apparently the best way was along the coastline of the Khandra sea to the east. Oribor lay along the Khandra sea as well, but far to the north. She would have taken a boat along the coast instead, but it was fall, which meant storm season. Which meant the Khandra sea was not safe in the slightest.

So east she went, down the coastline, on roads stretching across rocky cliffs and delving through rain-soaked forests. On the third week she crossed out of the Dural Territories and into the Jaestin Empire. Fortunately the two nations were at peace, and vampire hunters were somewhat of an international organization, welcomed and respected everywhere. They didn't owe allegiance to any one nation, only to the protection of humanity in general. Thus, she was only lightly searched before she was allowed through the border of the Empire. The border guards were outfitted to appear like fierce dragons, with ornate helmets of jade and gold. Ruby wondered if all the military outfits of the Empire were that well supplied.

The landscape changed as she went. The roads started easing upwards into the highlands of the Empire. The Khandra sea disappeared into shrouded mists below as the road snaked into rolling hills and bright green steppes. In the distance she could see mountains reaching up to the sky, puncturing the clouds with their jagged peaks. She smiled and hummed a tune as she walked. She liked the change in scenery. She loved how free and open it felt. She greeted other travelers with a wave and a smile, even stopping to share a meal with a few. The people in the Jaestin Empire were less suspicious than those in the Territories. And they had good reason to be: the Empire was apparently prospering from trade and good relations with neighbors.

She walked and walked, ate and slept and walked again. Her legs grew hardy and strong. This was the longest journey she had ever taken, and she loved it.

After four weeks she finally reached the base of the Zhang Mountains. According to the dominant religion in the Empire, of which there were very many, the Zhangs were actually the spine bones of their dead god, who had of course created them first, and then the world around them.

The road through the Zhangs was the worst part. It seemed to be almost all uphill. She was tired, her legs were sore, and her feet were aching when she finally approached Altar. The last day was spent traveling on narrow roads above gaping river valleys and through rocky mountain ranges. Each vista was more impressive than the last. But when she finally came around the last peak and saw the city itself, she had to stand in the middle of the road for a few seconds just to take it in with wide eyes and an idiotic grin.

Tall, circular towers of ancient stone perched on hills of green and bastions of rock, overlooking the river valleys far below. Clouds blew through the city streets, drifting like half-forgotten memories being carried with the breeze. The city itself was multi-tiered, sitting on the mountain slopes and peaks like a proud kind on his throne. And there was color everywhere. Bright, multi-colored banners hung with flags of every shade and spectrum stretched out from buildings and towers, linking the whole city together in an elaborate spider-web. Overall, it looked far more inviting than any city she had ever seen in the Dural Territories.

"I think I like the Empire better," she whispered. She grinned, filled with fresh energy, shouldered her pack, and strode on down the road.

Entering the city felt just as good as looking at it from afar. It felt familiar somehow, like a long-lost friend. The people were friendly, greeting her with a bow and repeating the phrase: "daylight upon you." She grinned. Probably sun-worshipers. Every country had them.

She actually had to stop and remind herself that she wasn't here just to visit, but to hunt vampires. She started asking around for the nearest inn. Innkeepers were always the best source of information in a new town, and she needed to find the girl who had sent her the letter, Anne. Anne seemed like a strange name for someone living in this city though. These people had darker, more tanned skin, longer, blacker hair, and names like Thang and Lao. Maybe Anne was an immigrant?

She shrugged it off and found the inn she was looking for, after making her way through crowded streets filled with the murmurs of commerce and conversation. Vendors in the streets hawked goods, vegetables, housewares, all sorts of things. Sheep and goats moved with practiced ease around the crowds, guided by weather-beaten farmers with sharp eyes and sharper sticks. It didn't seem like a city under the threat of vampires. Maybe they had already been eliminated?

The inside of the inn, whose name she couldn't begin to pronounce, was all old stone. There was no wood of any kind in the walls, ceiling, or floor. Fires sputtered in the corners, in stone fireplaces where a few people huddled and spoke in murmurs and strange gestures. Ruby approached the man who looked most like the innkeeper. Well, he was behind the desk at least. Or what appeared most like a desk in the room.

"Hi," she started. "Uh, daylight up on you."

He smiled at that. Most of his face was hidden by a heavy brown beard. "Daylight upon you. How may I help you?" His voice was heavily accented, with long-drawn out syllables and accented consonants.

"I know it's kind of a long shot and all, but I'm looking for a girl named Anne that lives here. I got a letter from her a while ago."

The innkeeper stared up at the ceiling, and for several, long seconds he was silent. Ruby glanced around herself to see if anyone was watching, or if someone was pulling a prank on her.

"Uh, h-hello?"

His gaze suddenly returned to her. "No. I have searched my memory, and I cannot remember anything about a girl living in this city named 'Anne.' And I know most everyone in Altar."

Ruby shrugged. "Well, worth a try I guess. Well maybe something else then? Could you tell me if there are any vampire hunters in town?"

He didn't need to look up at the ceiling to 'search his memory' this time. "Yes. There are three of them staying in Kraesh De-Gere."

Ruby tested the word on her tongue. "K... Kraesh Dagger?"

The man smiled. She couldn't tell behind his beard if it was condescending or not. "It is another inn, closer to the inner temples of the city."

"Ah, thanks. How long have they been there for?"

He looked up at the ceiling. Ruby sighed and closed her eyes, telling herself 'patience' over and over in her head.

"Three months and seventeen days," the innkeeper finally said.

Ruby grinned and bounced a little on the balls of her feet, happy to have the next piece of the puzzle. The other vampire hunters could definitely help her figure out what was going on. "Wow, oddly specific. But thanks so much! Do you guys uh, do you take tips in Altar? Like can I give you a coin or something for your help?"

He smiled. "No recompense is needed. Daylight upon you."

She bowed hurriedly, already on her way out the door. "Daylight upon you too!"

It didn't take long to find Kraesh De-Gere. As she moved into the center of the city, it immediately became apparent what was a temple and what wasn't. Regular buildings were simply smooth, cut stone. Temples however, were covered in ornate carvings and littered with offerings of flowers and bowls of smoking incense. People crowded around the outsides of them in small circles, chanting in low voices as people in heavy green robes watched with careful stares. The carvings on the temples were all different. Not a single one was the same as any of the others. Ruby found herself wondering just how many different gods were recognized in Altar.

Once she found herself in the temple district, all she had to do was ask around before she was pointed in the direction of Kraesh De-Gere. It was much, much bigger than the first inn. She entered, asked the attendant at the front, and was directed to a balcony at the back of the sitting room.

There she found two women and a man, leaning against the railing, laughing, and smoking pipes of something sweet-smelling against the backdrop of the setting sun. They turned as she approached.

"Hi sweetie, can we help you?" one of the women, a giant of one really, asked her. She had dark skin and piercing eyes. Her hand rested on the sheath of her sword, and there was a large, ornate staff on her back.

Ruby smiled nervously. "Yeah, hi. Uh, you guys are vampire hunters right?"

They chuckled. Ruby looked at the other two. The man, the shortest of the group, had an oversized hunting rifle on his back. And he looked stocky enough to use it. The last was a pale waif of a woman, with silver hair streaked with shots of black. She didn't seem to have any weapons on her.

"Yeh, we're that alright," the man replied. He looked her up and down. "You having trouble with vampires then?"

Ruby grinned and adjusted her pack on her shoulder. "Not really. I'm actually a vampire hunter too. Name's Ruby."

They looked at eachother, exchanging glances. "Really now?" the tall woman asked.

"Yeap. I'm from the Dural Territories, not the Empire. It's my first time up here. Really pretty place though, Altar."

The tall woman smiled. "Sure is. I'm Iskaer. That little stump of a man is Torn," she pointed at the man, "and that little ghost in the corner is Ae. She doesn't talk much."

Ae nodded. Ruby smiled and waved at her. Ae didn't smile back.

Iskaer cleared her throat. "So are you just passing through Altar or..."

"Ah! No, I actually got a letter from someone who lives here. A girl named Anne. She uh, I dunno why but she said that Altar was having a vampire problem? And that they needed someone from outside the Empire to come help with it?" Ruby made a show of glancing around. "But uh, it seems you guys have everything locked down pretty tight here. This place seems pretty peaceful."

Iskaer and Torn exchanged glances. "Well I'm sorry to tell you Ruby," Iskaer replied, "but we cleared out all the vampires here weeks ago. There weren't many, not even a full clan, but nonetheless the job is already done."

Ruby grinned. "Ah, well no biggie. Just less work for me. Congrats on clearing out the vampires too! It always makes me happy when I hear more people are safe. Oh, do any of you know a girl in this city named Anne? She was the one who send me the letter and I was kinda hoping I could at least talk to her and tell her I showed up?"

Iskaer smiled. "You're in luck. She lives north a ways, up in the hills above the city, but I do actually know where. We've spoken on occasion. Would you like me to take you?"

Ruby shook her hands. "Oh, it's totally fine! I can see you guys are busy and all-"

"Nonsense." Iskaer tapped her pipe clean on the stone railing of the balcony. "We were just finishing up anyway. Not doing much else for the rest of the night anyways. And I'm always happy to help out a fellow vampire hunter. Come, let us be off."

Iskaer was already walking out the door. Her long, powerful strides left Ruby scrambling to catch out. She spun around and gave a quick wave. "Bye Torn, bye Ae! Nice you meet you!"

Torn waved back. Ae just stared.

"Is Anne much further?" Ruby asked, pushing up the path on burning legs and heaving lungs. Her pack felt like it weighed a hundred pounds. Walking. Always more walking.

"Not much!" Iskaer called from up ahead. "Just a little further!"

"I thought I was done hiking when I got to Altar," Ruby muttered under her breath.

With her lengthy strikes and ornate staff, which she apparently liked to use to walk even faster, Iskaer was opening up the distance on her. The path to Anne's house climbed up into the mountaintop hills above Altar, winding through low-hanging trees as the setting sun turned the sky into a layered swirl of blazing orange and neptunian purple. Crickets chirped in the grass as the wind howled through the river valleys far below.

Ruby huffed and sweated her way up the path, letting out a heavy sigh of relief as it finally leveled out. It continued further on into the trees. She could see lights glimmering through them, like houses. Iskaer was waiting for her where the trail turned away from the cliffside and turned towards the lights. Ruby wearily made her way to her.

"Sorry," Iskaer smiled. "I didn't take into account how long you traveled to get here. I'll slow down for you. Just up the path. Those lights up there are where she lives."

Ruby smiled gratefully and trudged past the tall, dark woman, sparing a small glance at her staff. The outer ends were made of some kind of metal, heavy and weighted, while the wooden core was covered in ornate carvings up and down the shaft. It was beautiful.

Iskaer took up walking just behind her. Ruby stretched her arms out and tried to think of a conversation starter.

There was a rushing noise. Something heavy and solid slammed into the back of her head, and her vision went black.

* * *

Groggily, blearily, she came to.

The back of her head felt like a hundred people had kicked it, all in a row. Her vision was blurry. She tried to move. Her hands were bound behind her back. She growled, angry, and kicked out at the strange shape filling her vision. It moved back.

"Feisty, aren't you," she heard through ringing ears. "Sad that it has to be this way"

She recognized the voice, and as her vision cleared, recognized the face. It was Iskaer. They were somewhere off the trail, in a small clearing in the forest.

"Sorry it has to be this way Ruby. But I can't let you ruin things here. I promise I'll make it quick and painless."

Ruby spat blood. "If it's supposed to be quick and painless," she growled, "why not kill me while I was out? Why let me wake up and then kill me?"

Iskaer squatted down on her haunches. "Because my people don't believe in killing someone who hasn't been able to make peace with the gods yet. I'm simply giving you a minute to pray if you need to, and decide which god will have your soul in the afterlife. I bear you no ill will Ruby. I have nothing against you. Thus I am allowing you that choice. Pray quickly."

Ruby fought to remain calm. Her breathing was quick and her wrists burned as she struggled with the ropes binding them, but she was calm. She decided to play along. She closed her eyes and tried to pull her wrists out of the bindings. They were tight, but she figured she could have herself free with just a few more seconds.

Iskaer stood up. "I can see you trying to break out of your bindings. If you don't stop moving your hands, I'm going to break your wrists." She brandished her staff.

Ruby growled. Iskaer wasn't close enough to kick out at. She could try rolling onto her front, standing up and trying to run, but she knew that the giant of a woman would be on her the second she moved a muscle. She decided on stalling.

"Why are you even doing this? I'm a vampire hunter like you!"

The woman nodded. "I believe you." She gestured towards Ruby's pack, lying next to her. "I saw the scythe in your pack. Incredible design. Your work?"

Ruby's face lit up. "Yeah, she's awesome isn't she! She's a multi-core scythe with an extendable shaft and an internalized locking mechanism but..." she trailed off, forgetting for a second where she was. "But that doesn't answer my question! We're on the same side here! Why are you doing this!"

Iskaer scoffed. Her sharp features softened. "That outburst was cute. It's too bad I have to do this. Come now Ruby. Do you really think I would be stupid enough to tell you? Is that what you think happens? Right before I kill you I tell you everything, and then you somehow pull a miracle and escape and foil my evil plan? This is real life. That's not how it works here, only in stories."

Ruby frowned. "I actually really like those stories."

"I do too," the other woman laughed. "I do too. I guess we have something in common then. So, have you decided which god to pray to? I can't let you drag this out much longer."

There was a rustling behind Iskaer. The tall, ebony-skinned goddess didn't seem to notice. Ruby pretended she didn't either.

"I mean, how many gods are there?" Ruby asked. "I don't know which one to pray to. I kinda just got to Altar if you didn't notice."

Iskaer stood and brandished her staff. Ruby's heart started pounding. "I'm sorry, but if you don't know who they are, you wouldn't be allowed to pray to them anyway. I have wasted enough time. I am sorry it has to be this way but... but..."

There was a strange squelching noise. As Ruby watched, the tip of a pointed blade pushed out through Iskaer's chest. Ruby's eyes went wide. The giant woman looked down at the blade with a puzzled look. There wasn't anyone behind her. The sword had just appeared out of midair.

Something happened. Iskaer's eyes looked like they had been set alight. She grinned and threw an elbow behind her with blinding speed. There was a sharp crack like bone on bone, and something went tumbling into the underbrush behind her.

Ruby struggled with her bonds, rolling onto her front and sitting up onto her knees. Iskaer took her staff and slammed one end into her own chest, shoving the blade out of her back. She spun around, wiping blood from her mouth.

"Face me coward!" she roared.

Ruby found herself almost terrified. The woman had a pain tolerance that defied humanity. But she wasn't going down without a fight.

Ruby, her hands still secured behind her back, charged the woman. She slammed into Iskaer's back, knocking the other woman to the ground before scrambling to her feet and making a run for it. She thought she was going to make it when something grabbed the back of her cloak and picked her up, swung her several feet into the air, and slammed her back down on the ground. A sharp burst of pain shot through her midsection. Iskaer yelled. Her vision went blurry again. And still, she struggled to her feet.

Iskaer was facing her, her feet spread apart and her arms wide like a bear standing on its hind legs. Ruby was about to try for another dash when Iskaer sudenly let out a gurgling cry. The tip of a knife blade appeared above her knee, pushing out through her thigh. She fell to one leg.

There was no doubt in Ruby's mind now. It was a ghostwalker. She would have said Weiss, but there was no way the white-haired vampire would have made it to the Empire. But a ghostwalker was a vampire, and that gave her twice as much reason to run. She couldn't help but watch though, as Iskaer slowly died. It was like watching an ancient tree come down. It demanded you witness its death. The ebony woman spun, screaming her rage out and swinging at empty air. Another blade appeared and punched through her chest. She stumbled and collapsed onto the ground, still howling like a banshee. Another sword in the back. Two more in her legs.

Ruby stared, awestruck, as Iskaer kept moving, crawling on the ground and swiping out at the air in front of her. She gave out a keening whine like an animal in extreme pain. It triggered something inside of Ruby; a deep, primal fear. She backed away, spun on her heel and ran.

She burst through the underbrush, head down as branches whipped and scratched her face. She made it through out onto the path, spun in both directions until she saw the lights of Altar, and started sprinting.

"Ruby!"

She skidded to a halt. She knew the voice. There was no mistaking it.

She turned around, and there she was. Weiss Schnee, her face marked by a purple bruise, her clothes dirty and tattered, and a line of blood running down her arm where she must have taken the Toll for ghostwalking.

Ruby backed up slowly. This was it, the moment she had been waiting for, the moment where Weiss finally tried to kill her. And here she was, with her arms bound and Crescent Rose back in the clearing.

Weiss held out her hands. "Ruby, please! I'm not trying to kill you!"

Ruby hesitated, then laughed. "Oh c'mon, seriously? The whole 'I swear I won't try and kill you' line again? You said that last time."

Weiss edged closer. "And did I try to kill you yet? Ruby, you have to listen to me. I'm Anne. I'm the one who sent you that letter."

Ruby froze. "W-What? It was you?"

Weiss nodded slowly. "Yes. I called you here. I need your help. And you see why now." She gestured behind her, where Iskaer's body lay in the brush. "Things in Altar are not what they seem."

Ruby slipped her hands out of her bonds, finally, and held them up to show Weiss she was free.

"Impressive," the vampire muttered. "What will it take to make you believe me?"

Ruby grinned. "I dunno. You could start by explaining what's really going on here."

Weiss sighed. The sun finished setting. Darkness fell, but it wasn't total just yet. A ruddy orange glow still shone over the tips of the mountains, but the light of the sun itself was gone. Ruby immediately felt colder, more exposed, more afraid. It was unnatural. She glanced around, her senses heightened and her instincts telling her to get inside.

"You feel it too," Weiss said.

Ruby nodded. "Yeah. What is it?"

"It's his power. The vampire lord in these mountains. Ryker." Weiss walked closer, her hands held out in front of her, showing they were empty. "It's complicated. But first we need to get indoors. These mountains, and Altar, aren't safe at night."

Ruby hesitated. "Let me get my pack first. I need Crescent Rose."

Weiss raised an eyebrow.

"My scythe. You know, the one I beat you with."

"Right," Weiss replied dryly. "Do you want me to wait here?"

"Sure."

Ruby scrambled for her pack, pushing through the underbrush towards it. She only spared Iskaer's body a fleeting glance.

"Serves you right," she mumbled, finally finding her pack in the dark and slinging it over her shoulders. She winced as it impacted her back. Her ribs still hurt. She rushed back to Weiss, the darkness and the fear attached to it like a shadow giving her new strength and a fresh sense of urgency. Weiss was still waiting on the trail, watching her like a hawk.

"Come. Before darkness truly falls," the vampire said.

She turned and continued down the trail. Ruby followed, keeping close, and yet leaving enough space in between them to bolt if she had to. She wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

* * *

One frantic rush through the woods and the darkness later, Ruby found herself in a small cave perched on the side of a cliff.

The only way in was a small ledge that ran along the cliff face, which one could only find if they bushwhacked their way through almost fifteen minutes of dense shrubbery and vegetation. The entrance to the cave itself, barely large enough for a man, was covered with an ornate patchwork of woven vines and branches. Ruby laughed, impressed.

"Wow Weiss, how did you learn to do all this? I thought you were the snooty 'my-father-is-a-lord' kind of girl."

Weiss struck a flint and sparked a fire that filled the small, snug cave, giving it warmth and light and a feeling of safety that was markedly absent in the night outside. "You'd be surprised what two years on your own will teach you."

Ruby looked around the cave, surprised that Weiss chose to ignore the sleight. "Yeah, I guess so."

There wasn't very inside. Some animal meat and skin hanging on racks in the corner, a small bedroll by the fire, and a few chests containing who knew what.

"You know I never thought I'd start a conversation with someone by asking how many times they've died since we last met, but yeah," Ruby giggled.

Weiss shot her a glare. "I'll have you know I've only been killed once this whole time."

Ruby cocked her head. "Oh? Sounds like a story." She settled by the fire, deliberately keeping her scythe in her lap. Weiss didn't know it, but the barrel that had been modified to fire crossbow bolts was trained directly on her. She wasn't taking any chances.

Weiss set some things down in the corner and checked the meat on the racks, then sat down on the opposite side of the fire. "It is a story, but right now you need to be told what's going on, and why I summoned you here."

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Before that though, what about killing me and all that? I thought you were dead set about revenge? I did kill your dad, remember?"

"I know," Weiss sighed, gazing at the fire. "But it doesn't seem all so important anymore. I honestly do need help, and you're the only person I could think of to ask for it. And I've more or less forgiven you for what happened in the Drangor Mountains. You were only doing what you thought was right, and so was my father. And you lost your sister. It's not like you came out of there unscathed."

Ruby frowned at the mention of Yang. "Yeah. I understand. So why me?"

"You're the only vampire hunter I know that wouldn't try to kill me on the spot. And I need a vampire hunter."

"Oh?"

Weiss nodded. "I lied about being a girl named Anne, but I didn't lie about the disappearances. You know I suppose I'd better start from the beginning."

Ruby settled in, getting comfortable. The barrel of Crescent Rose didn't waver in the slightest.

"I came to Altar a few months ago," Weiss started, "running. Out of the Dural Territories. You were right. I never managed to stay in one place. Before long I had a group of vampire hunters on my tail, and I had to cross over into the Empire to get away from them."

Ruby felt nervous for some reason. As if the thought of someone trying to harm Weiss was actually making her uncomfortable. But why? Weiss was only a vampire, after all.

"So I came here. Traveled my way to Altar, passing as a pilgrim. I had heard rumors of a vampire clan operating in the mountains above the city. And, as it turned out, the rumors were right."

"So there _are_ vampires here," Ruby breathed out. "The other vampire hunters I met were lying."

Weiss looked at her pointedly. "Yes. They're in on it. Long story short, the leader of the vampire clan here, Ryker, struck a deal with the the Priest of Light."

"Priest of light?" Ruby asked.

"The head of the association of priests that govern the city of Altar. It is a theocracy, after all, despite what the Empire would like to think." Weiss poked the fire a few times. "Basically, every few nights the Priest of Light convinces some of his faithful, trusting flock to be out at night, on some religious task or pilgrimage. Then the vampires from the mountains swoop in, take the pilgrims, and bring them back to their home in the mountains.

"Yeesh," Ruby replied. "Swooping. Swooping is bad."

Weiss raised an eyebrow and continued. "In return, the Priest of Light gets his coffers stuffed with whatever earthly riches the pilgrims had on them, as well as regular payments from the vampire clan."

"Payments?" Ruby asked. "Of what?"

"Gold, jewels, silver, whatever the vampires manage to come up with. Most vampire clans are exceedingly old Ruby, and have had many years to stockpile all sorts of treasures. I actually joined the vampire clan here for a few days. They welcomed me like family. But then I saw what they were doing; what they did to their prisoners. I couldn't stay. I escaped, and was almost caught while doing so. I managed to ghostwalk and slip away, but now they know that I'm an enemy. They'll try to kill me on sight."

Weiss was silent for a few moments while Ruby thought.

"It didn't used to be like this," Weiss muttered. "My father told me stories of when vampires and humans lived in peace. Well, relative peace. Now all we do is kill eachother. And if I'm being honest, vampires are losing. The fact that they're being forced to do things like this shows just how hard things have become for them in this new world you humans are creating. You're uniting. Making empires and kingdoms and armies. And it's killing us."

Ruby sighed. "Yeah. It's kinda hard to see it from your point of view, you know? I mean yeah most vampires are cruel and enjoy suffering and pain, but there're probably more like you. Vampires just trying to survive. It just sucks that what they need to survive is y'know, fresh human blood."

Weiss nodded. "I agree. It's why I'm not entirely mad at you for what happened to my father. You aren't the first human I talked to, you know."

"Really?"

"Yes." Weiss drew her knees up to her chest. "When I was in that castle, sometimes I snuck into the dungeons and watched the human prisoners we kept down there like cattle, for feeding whenever we needed. There was one of them, an old man, who actually tried to talk to me instead of glaring at me and trying to grab me when I got close to the bars. He told me about his family, his life, and the world of humans." The white-haired vampire looked up at the roof of the cave. "And I began to question if the way my father was doing things was truly right. And in the end, I suppose it wasn't. He was still my father, yes, but the things he were doing were simply unconscionable. I won't thank you for what you did, but I won't begrudge you it either. Vampires are predators. Humans are our prey. I can't get mad at humans for not wanting to be preyed upon."

Ruby took a second to digest all that Weiss had said. "Well yeah. No hard feelings then Princess."

Weiss glared at her. "Princess?"

"Yeah," Ruby replied with a smirk. "Cuz you act all stuck-up and noble all the time, like the princesses Yang used to read to me about in my old story books. It kinda fits."

"Don't call me that," Weiss deadpanned.

"Sure thing. Princess."

Weiss glared at her for a few seconds, then looked back at the fireplace. It might have just been the light, but Ruby could have almost sworn she saw the beginnings of a blush on her pale face. The thought made her blush in turn, so she coughed and looked away.

"So uh, I guess I can't really go back into Altar then. Those vampire hunters, they're in on the whole deal huh? Making the people think things are under control?"

"They're in the Priest of Light's pocket," Weiss replied with a nod.

Ruby whistled her amazement; a habit she had picked up from Yang. "Yeesh. So that's why you called me then? To help with all this?"

Weiss looked at her in puzzlement. "Well of course."

Ruby smiled. "So you want to kill two more trained and experienced vampire hunters, wipe out an entire clan of vampires, assassinate a corrupt high priest and whatever members of his council or whatever that are loyal to him, and restore peace and order to the entire city of Altar?"

"Well... the vampire clan here is corrupt and horrible, I saw what they do to the human prisoners myself when I was with them." Weiss seemed taken aback. "I know it sounds difficult, but we can't just not do anything, right?"

Ruby gave her a hard look. "Well then, tell me Weiss. When did you start caring about humans as much as you do vampires?"

Weiss took a few moments to answer. When she did though, she looked up from the fire and stared Ruby dead in the eyes. "What's the difference?"

Ruby let a slow smile spread onto her face. "That's all I needed to hear. So, when do we start coming up with an epic plan to get all this done?"

"Tomorrow," Weiss replied, standing up and checking the entrance of the cave. She peeked outside, then moved back in. "We're relatively safe enough here to not need a watch. You can sleep if you need. And you might as well help yourself to some of my food."

Ruby stood up and dusted herself off, moving to her pack and taking out her sleeping roll. "It's fine, I still have a few days worth of rations. Oh, and how'd you find my house? How did you know where to send the letter?"

"Believe it or not, I found out here you lived almost a year ago. I... I was planning on killing you back then. But I couldn't bring myself to do it. It didn't feel right. So I simply moved on."

Ruby smiled. "Well thanks then. For not trying to kill me."

"Don't mention it."

They were silent for several moments, both preparing their respective sleeping arrangements. Ruby felt strange being in such close proximity to Weiss again. Was it just because she was so painfully attractive? The white hair, the sharp features, the blue eyes that seemed to bore into her, they all combined to form a face that had haunted her dreams for the past two years. She had a sinking suspicion it would until the day she died.

She shot a glance at Weiss. Weiss was looking at her too. They both looked away and pretended nothing had happened.

Ruby lay down on her sleeping mat and turned over to watch the entrance to the cave. Crescent Rose lay next to her, fully extended if she needed it. "So uh, Weiss."

"What." the heiress deadpanned.

Ruby grinned. "You sure you're not gonna disappear on me in the middle of the night again? Like last time?"

"No you dunce, this is _my_ cave. If anything I would make you leave, not me."

Ruby giggled, and then things were silent for several moments. Weiss put out the fire, and a comfortable darkness shrouded the room, much different from the fear-inducing one outside.

"I am sorry Ruby, for running last time." Weiss whispered.

"It's okay Princess," Ruby whispered back. "I forgive you."

* * *

 _ **I had one or two people tell me they felt I was writing Ruby out of character, and those people would be right. But that's simply because I'm not writing 15 year-old, nervous, fresh-from-Signal Academy Ruby. I'm writing 22 year-old, experienced, badass vampire hunter Ruby who's seen and done way more shit than in the show.**_

 _ **The hard part about writing a full alternate universe is that different backgrounds and settings influence the characters, and it's hard knowing what's a core part of the character that wouldn't change, and what's simply a product of their environment. I've kept Ruby's love of justice, desire to help people, cheery attitude and positive outlook, yet changed a few other things that are simply different because of how she grew up in this world.**_

 _ **If you want to discuss this further you can shoot me a PM, and I'd be happy to talk more about it.**_

 _ **And please, if you want to leave a review with actual content to it that provokes discussion, take 15 seconds of your time to make an actual account so I can reply to you. Guest reviews that I can't reply to piss me off. If you have a flaw in the story to point out, I'm obviously going to want to discuss it with you.**  
_


	6. Chapter 6 - Shadows and Wounds

It was strange how a deep blue sky could seem so empty when the cold was chilling your bones. And how the sun could appear close enough to touch, bright as an inferno, and yet provide no warmth at all.

Ruby turned to her erstwhile vampire companion, eager to take her mind off of the cold with a conversation. "Hey Weiss? I know this is kinda random and all but, how have you been feeding?"

The vampire turned her head and stared at her for a few tense seconds. Her eyes narrowed.

Ruby gulped. "Uh, y-you know with blood and all that. Pureblood ghostwalkers still need blood every few months so they don't go crazy and all that just like regular vampires right?"

Weiss didn't respond.

They were hidden in some sparse vegetation, laying on their bellies in a stand of trees overlooking a clearing in the mountains above Altar. The reason this particular clearing was special, was because the large rocks at the other end of the clearing hid one of the entrances to the vampire's complex in the mountains.

Weiss sighed, her breath misting in the cold. A frosted breeze blew through the trees, causing Ruby to shiver and pull her grey-green cloak tighter around her, careful not to make much noise while she did so.

"Admittedly..." Weiss began, "it has been a few months since I've fed. But I don't feel anything yet, no need or urge for it. So for now, I will last."

"Ah." Ruby continued watching the clearing before them, waiting for their target. Weiss had ended the conversation quite expertly.

They didn't have much of a plan to save Altar and they had already argued twice over how to go about it, but they at least agreed that the corrupt vampire hunters had to be eliminated before anything else. Weiss, thanks to her time spend with them, knew that the vampire clan and the corrupt hunters met up here in this clearing in the mountains to discuss their agreement every week or so, or when they had something that needed discussing. And as Weiss saw it, the death of Iskaer would definitely warrant discussion.

And so, they were staking out the clearing, waiting for a good opportunity to take out not only the vampire hunters, but whatever vampires showed up to meet them.

"So uh, you said the last time you fed was a few months ago," Ruby muttered, not one to be easily dissuaded." How... how did you do it? You said you don't believe in killing people, right?"

Weiss was silent for several moments. Ruby bit her lip. She desperately wanted Weiss to say that no, she hadn't killed anyone. But she knew better than to make assumptions.

"It was an old man," Weiss finally replied. "In an alleyway in Altar, wrapped in a blanket against the cold. I don't know why he wasn't inside one of the shelters that the temples provide for the homeless. But he was there, and I was hungry, and he was asleep and, well, you can figure out the rest. And no, I didn't kill him. Being bit by a vampire puts one in a state of paralysis close to sleep. It's the venom coating our fangs, you see?"

Weiss opened her mouth, gesturing at her fangs. They glinted slightly, and Ruby nodded.

"So when I fed on him, he simply went right back to sleep. I'm sure he woke up in the morning wondering what happened. I don't know what became of him. I fled as soon as I was done feeding."

Ruby smiled, relieved. "Ah. How much exactly do you guys drink? I've seen vampires, you know, completely drain people. It's not pretty."

Weiss glanced at her, then back at the clearing. "It depends on how blood-starved one is. You can only drink what you need, or, yes, you can completely drain the person. It's up to the vampire, but if you're blood-starved, it's much harder to control yourself and only stop when you've drunk your share."

"Ah. That all makes sense. And stuff." Ruby coughed, staring at the clearing.

Weiss nodded. "Indeed."

Several seconds passed in silence.

"You know uh," Ruby muttered, "you know you can... you can feed on me, okay?"

Weiss looked at her incredulously.

Ruby blanched. "I mean like, if you really need to you know? I'd rather have you bite me, and it's not like I want to be bitten but if it has to be someone it would be good if it's me," Ruby started talking with her hands. "Totally cuz of the danger and all that, I mean I'm obviously not gonna run around screaming vampire if you bit me, and that would really be bad if someone did that because then people are gonna figure out you're alive, and that you're still here, and _that_ could jeopardize the entire operation and..."

Ruby trailed off and coughed into her hand, realizing that she was rambling.

Weiss stared at the clearing, not saying anything. Ruby was sure her cheeks were redder than they were before.

Finally, Weiss muttered a 'thank you.'

"No problem," Ruby squeaked.

She desperately hoped that someone would show up in the clearing. She would much rather be fighting vampires than trying to navigate her confused feelings about Weiss. She was a vampire! Why would she ever let a vampire feed on her? She was a vampire _hunter_. And yet, she had let the offer slip, unable to stop herself. There was no way she could take it back now. And for some reason, for some reason she didn't _entirely_ hate the idea of Weiss feeding on her. The thought of her that close, her lips on her neck, her scent in the air, their skin touching, embracing...

Sharp fangs in her neck... On second thought, maybe not.

She coughed again and started fiddling with Crescent Rose, desperate for something to take her mind off of the annoyingly attractive vampire laying next to her.

And then she heard footsteps. Bootsteps more like, coming up the path, crunching on the loose stones and dirt. Only one pair. She stopped fiddling with Crescent Rose and looked at Weiss. The vampire nodded. She heard it too.

A man entered the clearing, walking up from the path and looking over his shoulder. He was short, like a dwarf, and had an oversized hunting rifle slung over his back.

"Torn," Ruby breathed. "He's alone."

"Not for long," Weiss whispered, and gestured towards the rocks at the other end of the clearing. Ruby spied movement in them.

"Two, three, four," Ruby counted. "Four vampires. Is that normal?"

Weiss nodded.

Ruby thought for a second. "Let's wait for them to start talking. Then we'll strike from opposite directions, take them off guard."

Weiss glared at her. "You dolt. They'll hear us moving through the brush before we can get to opposite sides of the clearing. Vampires have sensitive hearing, remember?"

Ruby frowned and lowered her voice. "Oh yeah. Crap. Well do we just attack from here?"

"Obviously," Weiss growled. "We don't have any other choice. We'll just have to be fast."

While they argued, Torn moved into the center of the clearing and stood with his arms crossed. The four vampires, dressed in heavy cloaks and otherwise plain clothes, walked out to meet him. They had an array of swords and axes with them. One had a bow on his back. He also had gold rings and a golden necklace.

"The leader," Weiss whispered, slowly sliding her rapier out of the sheath belted to the side of her tunic. "Not the vampire lord Ryker, but one of his subordinates."

They moved together and started talking. Ruby couldn't make out much, but she did hear snatches, including the name Iskaer.

"What're they saying?" Ruby whispered. Weiss did, after all, have much more sensitive hearing.

Weiss' eyes were wide. She leaned over to Ruby after a few seconds and whispered back: "Iskaer's not dead."

Ruby's mouth gaped. "What?" she squealed, a little louder than she meant to.

She quickly covered her mouth. Weiss glared at her. But Torn and the vampires kept talking. They apparently hadn't heard anything.

Ruby let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, so do you wanna let me handle Torn, so you can-"

Without warning Torn drew the rifle on his back, spun around, and fired. The day split open with a terrific _crack_ that shook snow from the trees. The branch just above Ruby's head exploded into a thousand whizzing fragments, forcing her to cover her head and roll away. Her mind immediately slipped into the rush of combat. She didn't have to think anymore.

The vampires shouted and spread out. She scrambled to her feet, grabbed Crescent Rose, and charged. Weiss was already ten steps ahead of her, heading towards the vampires. Torn was reloading with practiced precision; his rifle apparently only held one shot. But she was fast, faster than anyone else there. She was on him before he could finish.

She swung her scythe wide and low, knowing that he could easily duck anything above head height. He ducked and swung at her with the butt of his rifle, drawing a dagger with his other hand and taking a quick swipe at her when she dodged the rifle butt. She backpedaled and brought Crescent Rose around for an overhead blow that he caught on his rifle, holding it over his head with both hands and the knife clutched in his fingers.

He grinned at her. "So, you got the best of Iskaer, eh? That's commendable. Sorry it has to be this way. Ain't nothin' personal."

"Yeah, she said the same crap," Ruby grunted, and lashed out with a sweeping kick that slammed into his side. He didn't flinch. He only grinned.

"You're like a freaking tree trunk!" Ruby whined. She stopped putting pressure on Crescent Rose, pulled it back, and swung it as fast as she could. Yet once again, his rifle was in the way. He put his shoulder into the block, and used his free hand to take several swings at her with his knife. She dodged the first two, then kicked out with her boot and knocked the knife out of his hand. He immediately pulled another one from his vest.

Ruby let out a growl of frustration and launched into a spinning assault, sweeping Crescent Rose around herself in a dance of death. It would have been impressive, had he not dodged or deflected every single strike with his rifle. He was incredibly spry for someone so short.

As he swung at her with his knife and she spun around to dodge it, she caught sight of movement behind her. A vampire, sprinting towards her. She took in the scene in an instant. Weiss had killed one, but apparently had her hands full with the leader, who she was dueling with her rapier. Ruby swept her scythe back in a quick reversal, but the incoming vampire simply ducked under it and skidded in between her and Torn. He grunted a thanks and backed off to finish reloading.

Ruby swung her scythe like a hammer at the newcomer, a woman in black leather armor wielding a heavy longsword.

"I don't!"

Another swing.

"Have!"

Another swing.

"Time!"

Another swing.

"For this!"

The vampire was backpedaling rapidly, scrambling to hold her balance against Ruby's assault. Ruby used her speed and spun around behind her, hoping to get at her back. She was now in between Torn and the vampire. She threw her weight into one final overhead swing, hard enough to drive the vampire to her knees even though she caught the blow on her sword.

She heard a click. Her instincts screamed at her. She ducked, dropping to the ground in a half-split.

Another _crack_ shook the heavens and the trees. The vampire in front of her simply vanished. Ruby looked up, her head ringing, and saw her lying on the ground a good twenty feet away. Or what was left of her. She scrambled to her feet and spun around to find Torn holding his rifle, the barrel smoking and glowing. He looked up from his sights.

"Oops," he chuckled. "Now that's just unfortunate. Hey, but at least it was only a vampire, right?" He started reloading again, backing up as he did. "Least you got to keep your pretty face for one more round."

Ruby growled. Out of the corner of her eye, on the other side of the clearing, she saw Weiss drive her rapier into the final vampire's neck, pull it out, and start running their way.

Torn was faster on the reload this time. Maybe his hands had just needed warming up. She charged. This was it. She had him.

He turned at the last second, towards Weiss, and fired.

 _Crack!_

Weiss spun to the ground, a trail of blood arcing into the air behind her.

"Weiss!" Ruby screamed. She covered the last few feet between herself and Torn and swung her scythe in a downward hammer-blow. He caught it on his rifle, like before. He pulled his knife, spun away from her, and swung the butt of the rifle at her left side. She caught it on the shaft of Crescent Rose, grabbing the smoking barrel with her free hand and using the two weapons to pull them close together. He couldn't swing it this close, but she couldn't use Crescent Rose either.

Howling in fury, her hand burning from the steaming barrel of his rifle, she fought to bring the blade-less end of Crescent Rose up against his chin. The end that she had modified to fire crossbow bolts. She hooked her left arm around the barrels of both weapons so that he couldn't get his rifle free. The barrel of his rifle started to burn her arm. She wrestled and struggled with him, grunting and growling as their breath misted in the cold air. He was stronger, but she was taller, and she used her height to shove the barrel-end of her scythe into his throat.

"What are you gonna do with that?" he choked out. "You've lost already."

He smiled, and managed to get the point of his knife against her neck. The tip drew blood as she gripped his wrist with her right hand, trying to stop him from plunging it into her neck. She couldn't hold him back for much longer.

"It's over," he rasped.

"Yeah," she growled, "it is."

With her left hand, she found and pulled the trigger of Crescent Rose. There was a heavy thunk, and a crossbow bolt shot out and punched through his neck. The tip protruded from the the back of his neck, halfway out of his skin. His eyes bulged and his tongue flapped uselessly. Ruby gave one final howl of effort and shoved his body to the ground.

A cold wind swept over the clearing. She stood there, staring down at Torn's writhing body. He didn't have much time left. Her chest was heaving and she was trying to ignore the pain in her hand. She looked at it. The skin was raw and red. Like the blood Weiss had left in the air when she had-

"Weiss!" Ruby cried out, spinning on her heel as she remembered the vampire.

She sprinted over to Weiss, closing the distance in seconds. She skidded to a halt on her knees by the white-haired girl. She wasn't moving. Was she dead? She hesitated before turning her over.

She breathed out a sigh of relief. The bullet had simply caught her on the side, but it had still been enough to send her to the ground. There was a hole in her left side, but it was already... closing up? The flesh was already reforming and re-knitting itself.

Weiss' eyes snapped open. They quickly focused on Ruby.

"Weiss?"

"You dolt," Weiss groaned out. "I'm not dead. It just hurts. A lot."

Ruby breathed a welcome sigh of relief. "Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, I forgot for a little bit. When I saw you take that shot I just... I thought that even you couldn't have survived that."

"Well apparently I can," Weiss muttered, leaning back and closing her eyes. "Gods, I wish I wasn't so used to pain."

Ruby smiled. She didn't know why, she didn't know what for, but she was unreasonably happy that Weiss was still alive. Urged by some protective instinct, she pulled the vampire's head into her lap. Weiss opened one eye and frowned, but didn't otherwise protest.

"That's twice," Weiss breathed out.

Ruby cocked her head. "Twice what now?"

"Twice I've almost died since we last met. I go an entire two years without you and only die once, and then as soon as you show up it almost happens again. You're bad luck Ruby."

Despite the burning agony gripping her hand, despite the bitter cold stinging her face, despite the lifeless bodies around them, Ruby laughed.

* * *

Agony. Burning pain. She bit her lip to try and ignore it. Her hand ached as she dipped it again into a bowl of water, warmed by the fire in the center of the cave. She slipped a bar of soap into the bowl, wincing and clenching her teeth as she felt the effects of the antiseptic on her burned hand.

Weiss was over on the other side of the cave, propped up against the wall and some pillows, resting. The wound in her side had already closed and she had changed into a new tunic, but her eyes were closed and she was resting. She looked so serene. Peaceful. Ruby liked this look much better than her usual disdainful frown. She looked pretty even when she was frowning, sure, but like this, she looked downright gorgeous. So much so that she had to force herself to stop staring. Yang had taught her that it was rude to stare.

Ruby sighed as the ache in her hand subsided, and thought about what to do next.

Torn and the vampires wouldn't be coming back from their meeting. They had hidden the bodies and covered the signs of the battle before retreating. But sooner or later, someone would find out. After all, the shots from Torn's rifle could have been heard from Altar.

Ruby took bandages from her pack and wrapped them tightly around her left hand. She would have to fight with a short sword while it healed. She only had use of her right hand, and Crescent Rose was _not_ a one-handed weapon.

"Why were so concerned for me?" Weiss suddenly asked.

Ruby looked at her, surprised. "You're awake? Oh. You mean earlier. When you uh, when I thought you died."

Weiss huffed. "I'll never get used to hearing that."

"What. That you died?"

The vampire nodded.

Ruby smiled back. "Well, hopefully it doesn't happen again. You were pretty awesome back there you know. I was kinda busy with that Torn guy, but I saw a bit of your fight. You took three of them! And their leader!"

"Yes well, I've learned a lot these past two years. My father trained me in swordplay and fencing from a very early age, but I never had much chance to put it into actual practice until recently. I daresay I'm an accomplished sword-fighter now. Maybe even the best in Altar."

Ruby grinned. "Geez, narcissistic much?"

The vampire scoffed. "Please. I'm just making an accurate and informed deduction. The people of Altar are not fighters. And you've done a very good job of dodging my question. Why were you so worried about me?"

Ruby watched the entrance to the cave. Suddenly she found herself unable to make eye contact with Weiss. "Well I mean, I thought you were dead."

"You know what I mean. I'm a vampire. You're a vampire hunter, only working with me because I'm your best chance to get rid of this vampire clan and the corrupt leaders of Altar. Why would you actually care if I died, besides it simply making your job harder?"

Ruby shrugged and kicked at the ground. "I dunno. I guess I like you. I mean I think. Like, you know, a friend and all that."

Weiss raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

Ruby shook her head and sighed. "For a vampire, you're not all that bad Princess."

Weiss frowned at that.

"You're actually pretty compassionate, you treat humans like you do vampires, you only kill when you have to, and you're generally kind of a nice person."

"Generally kind of?"

"Fine, you're a good person Weiss. And yeah, I said person, not vampire. If you see me as a person and not a human, then I can see you as a person and not a vampire." She stared at the wrappings around her hand, flexing it and wincing in pain. "And as far as people I could be working with on this whole thing goes, I could be stuck with a lot worse. A lot worse looking too."

Weiss was silent. Ruby looked up at her. The vampire was blushing and looking away. Ruby's brain caught up to her mouth.

She coughed and stood up from the fire. "So I'm gonna uh, take one of your swords and patrol the area, alrighty? Make sure no one followed us back, that sort of thing. Gimme um, gimme thirty minutes. If I'm not back by then, you can come looking for me. Sound good?"

Weiss was still avoiding her gaze, but she nodded.

Ruby was out of the cave so fast she almost forgot that the exit was right next to a cliff.

Almost.

* * *

If one ignored the bitter, biting cold they harbored, they would say that the Zhang mountains were quite beautiful. She could see the peaks themselves in the distance; stark-white snow-covered spears against the pale blue sky.

Ruby admired them for a few seconds, perched on a rock and eating a strip of dried rabbit meat.

"I wonder where Weiss learned to hunt," she muttered. The meat was actually quite good. And... seasoned?

She looked down at it, and yes, there was a dusting of some sort of spicy seasoning. Weiss must have gotten it from the city or the vampires before she went into hiding.

Ruby finished the meat, jumped down from the rock, and continued her patrol through the forest near their cave. It was only about a dozen acres across, but she still wanted to make sure no one had followed them down from the vampire clan's lair. She moved carefully but relaxed, her un-bandaged and un-burned hand resting on the hilt of the sword she had borrowed from Weiss. The young vampire had stockpiled quite a few in that cave of hers. That's what was in the chests, she had recently discovered.

Ruby moved more carefully as she neared the edge of the forest. Through a break in the trees she could see the main eastern road, the one that led down from the Zhang mountains and further down into Altar. The fact that the Zhangs – inhospitable and difficult to travel in the best of times – were in between Altar and the rest of the Jaestin Empire was the reason that it was such an isolated, insulated city. It was also the reason that the vampire clan could get away with operating the way they did.

She knelt at the edge of the road, on top of a grassy overhang a few feet above the wide dirt path. And there she waited, while a bone-biting breeze rustled the trees and the sun tried its best to warm the few patches of her skin that weren't covered in shadow.

She needed a few moments to think. Her mind drifted back to what she said to Weiss. She blushed and put her face in her hand.

"Really Ruby?" she muttered to herself. "A lot worse looking too? Am I really hitting on a vampire now?" She chuckled despite herself. "I blame you Yang. What a bad influence."

Despite that, there was no denying how attractive Weiss was. It was that white hair. There was just something about it, something that pulled her eyes towards it. She had never met anyone else with hair like that before. It was beautiful. Well that, and her eyes. And her defined facial features. And her slim body, which Ruby had caught a glimpse of while she was changing clothes in the cave. And her voice. And her personality, which was leagues better than any other vampire she had ever met and-

She realized what she was thinking. She started giggling to herself, rolling over on her side. "No, no no no no! I am _not_ falling for a vampire. C'mon, that's just silly. Geez Ruby. Get a hold of yourself."

She shook her head clear and returned to watching the road, trying to focus on something other than Weiss. It was the same as ever, worn dirt and wagon-tracks. The breeze picked up through the trees. She could hear birds chirping, some small animal moving around behind her, and... bootsteps?

She frowned and put her ear to the ground. And faintly, very faintly, she heard something.

 _Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp._

She listened harder. It almost sounded like pairs of boots, marching in unison and step. Her senses went on alert. She crawled back deeper into the underbrush, so that she could just barely see the road. The footsteps came closer and closer. Soon enough, she could hear them loud and clear.

 _Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp._

The hair on her neck stood up. A tremor of fear ran down her spine. There was something animal and primal about it. It was the innate fear of being crushed by something much bigger and more intimidating than you.

The first rows of helmets came into view, marching past her in perfect formation. Soldiers in green and gold garb, with helmets of shining bronze marked with studded horns. They carried spears and swords. A massive banner was held by a man out in front, decorated with a curling and twisting dragon. Soldiers of the Jaestin Empire. Dozens of them. And they simply kept coming.

The sound of their boot-treads was almost deafening now. Row after row, rank after rank of soldiers. She started counting each row as it went past, staying perfectly still as they marched. It took almost a full minute until the last rank passed her. She counted forty, give or take. Multiply that by five soldiers in each rank, and she came up with-

"Two hundred soldiers," she breathed out in awe. "Welp, this complicates things."

They marched on down the road, descending from the mountains and heading into Altar. But what would they be doing there? What would a detachment of two hundred armed and armored Jaestin Imperials be used for in a religious city? Did they know about the vampires?

Their bootsteps gradually faded into the distance, and Ruby let out a soft breath. "I've got to tell Weiss."

She spun on her heel and began sprinting back to the cave.

* * *

"Weiss! Weiss Weiss Weiss!"

She burst into the cave, shoving aside the stick-and-leaf door the vampire had created.

"R-Ruby?" Weiss groaned. "Calm down you dolt, what's going on?"

Ruby jumped up and down. "Soldiers Weiss, soldiers! Imperial soldiers! Like two freakin' hundred of them!"

Weiss sat up in a hurry. "What? Where?"

"Coming down the road into Altar! They were Imperial all right, they had the bronze helms and jade armor and, and the big dragon flag that waved in the air like it was roaring, and there was so freaking many and we just-"

"Ruby!" Weiss shouted.

The vampire hunter eeped and stopped in mid jump.

"Calm down."

Ruby nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, okay, sorry. Just got real excited there. So uh, like I was saying. Imperial soldiers. Two hundred or so. I counted ranks and rows, and then just multiplied!"

Weiss raised an eyebrow. "You know math?"

"Yeah, Yang taught me," Ruby replied as she settled down in the cave. She undid her heavy cloak and set it to the side, then rifled around in her pack until she found Crescent Rose's cleaning kit. She then grabbed the scythe itself and pulled it into her lap.

Weiss raised her eyebrow yet again. It was almost as if it was permanently stuck that way. "You're clearing your scythe?"

"Yeah," Ruby replied. "I slipped on the way back after that fight with Torn and the blade got stuck in the dirt. That's a big no-no. Plus it's kinda, uh, stress relief. I don't let my baby stay dirty "

"Your... baby? It's a weapon, Ruby."

The vampire hunter laughed. "Yeah, right. You're lucky I like you Weiss, otherwise I'd have killed you for that."

The white-haired woman seemed taken aback.

Ruby winked at her. "Just kidding. Maybe."

Weiss shook her head and laid back down on her mat. "Two hundred soldiers, marching into Altar. What for? Could they be here to investigate the disappearances?"

"Really?" Ruby questioned. "Two hundred soldiers just for that?"

Weiss was silent for a moment. "Well, they could be using it as an excuse for a training exercise. And it's not like the Empire doesn't have the soldiers to spare. They've got a massive army, and yet no one to fight. So it would make sense to send them on long training operations like this, using the investigation as an excuse. I'm sure the trek over the Zhangs gave them some valuable experience."

Ruby finished shining the blade of Crescent Rose, grunted in agreement, and moved to disassemble the inner mechanisms so she could clean them. She stopped just before doing so. She suddenly realized what she was doing. Taking apart Crescent Rose, rendering herself completely vulnerable, in a small space with Weiss. She doubted she could beat Weiss with a simple sword. Crescent Rose would be her only hope if Weiss betrayed her. And she had almost taken it apart without thinking about it. Did she trust the vampire that much now?

She risked a glance at her erstwhile companion. The vampire was laying on her mat by the fire, looking up at the ceiling and frowning in thought. She didn't _look_ dangerous. In fact, she was still probably recovering from her wound.

Ruby let out a quick sigh and went back to disassembling Crescent Rose. If they needed to work together to save Altar from the corruption and vampires plaguing it, they would need to trust eachother. And maybe this was the first step.

Several moments passed in silence.

Then, Weiss spoke up. "We should go down to their camp and see what they're up to. What their purpose is."

Ruby looked up at her. "Really? Don't you think that's a bit risky?"

"Well, they're an unknown variable now. They could either help us or hinder us. And I believe we should find out which as soon as possible, so we can change our plans to adapt to the situation."

Ruby whistled. "Look at you, talking all smart."

"You wouldn't know smart if it bopped you over the head, dolt," Weiss huffed.

Ruby grinned, reached over the fire, and lightly tapped the vampire on the head. "Bop."

Weiss closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Point taken. You're lucky I'm not fully recovered."

"Oh yeah? And what would ya do if you were?"

Weiss frowned. "Something. I'm not sure what."

"Who's the smart one now then?" Ruby giggled.

"Well it's certainly not you. And you never said anything about my plan. Do you agree? Should we go down to their camp tomorrow and find out what they're doing here?"

Ruby hummed in agreement. "Yeah, it makes sense the way you put it. But are we talking sneaking in and eavesdropping, or just walking up to their command tent and saying 'hey guys, what are you doing here?'"

"Well, let's try option number one first. I can just ghostwalk to the center of their camp, after all. I'd prefer not to, but this is one of those times where it's a necessity. And if that fails, we can try option two."

"Sounds good," Ruby agreed. "Why don't you wanna ghostwalk though?"

Weiss hesitated before answering. "It's uncomfortable now. The feeling of being watched by those shadowy creatures persists after I leave. Sometimes I can even see them in the real world, or at least I think I do. And the cuts are getting deeper."

Ruby frowned. "Well that's not good. Did your father tell you anything about it getting worse and stuff?"

"No," Weiss whispered.

Ruby didn't know what to say. Because for once Weiss sounded honestly, genuinely scared.

"Let's just get some rest," the vampire declared. "We'll scout the Imperial's camp in the morning, when they'll be busy conducting morning training and mobilization. But just to be safe, we should put out the fire early tonight. Even the embers. They might scout the area surrounding their camp."

Ruby put Crescent Rose back together in a flash, the fine mechanical parts and pieces snapping back into place under the care of her dexterous and practiced fingers. "Sounds good. Guess we should sleep now then."

"Agreed.

"Oh, hey Weiss?"

The vampire looked at her. "Yes?"

Ruby thought for a moment. "How do you feel about all this? Like, hunting vampires? Your own kind? Are you okay with it?"

Weiss half-smirked. "Honestly, you underestimate me. Remember when I asked you what the difference between humans and vampires is?"

She nodded.

"Well to me, there really isn't one. So I'll treat them the say way you would treat a human bandit or murderer. They're the ones giving vampires a bad name." She frowned and looked at the fire. "Their kind is the reason we're hunted and feared everywhere we go. I don't know if I can change that, but I should try. And I might as well start here."

Ruby smiled. "Well, I think you're doing a pretty good job already. So if it's a vote of confidence you're looking for, you've got mine."

Weiss huffed. "I don't need your 'vote of confidence,' dolt." The vampire turned to the fire and began to put it out.

"Sure thing Princess," Ruby replied. "Goodnight."

Ruby settled in on her mat and stretched out her blankets as the fire faded. Just before it did, Ruby thought she saw the barest hints of a smile on Weiss' face.

And then darkness enveloped the cave.

* * *

Sleep that night came easy for Ruby.

But not so for Weiss. The vampire unintentionally woke her up a few hours into the night. She was whimpering and tossing back and forth on her sleeping mat.

Ruby watched for a few moments, wanting to help, wanting to comfort her somehow. She remembered what Weiss had said about shadows watching her, about feeling them even when she was awake. About cuts getting deeper. And above all, the look of genuine fear on her face. The urge to comfort her was overwhelming.

So she crawled over to Weiss, sidled up behind her, and pulled her into a gentle embrace. Weiss stopped whimpering and stopped shaking. Ruby couldn't tell if she had woken her or not. She pulled her blanket over the both of them anyway. Weiss' had been tossed into the corner of the cave.

The vampire's breathing turned slow and steady, and her small, thin frame seemed to tense up as Ruby wrapped her arms around her stomach. But she didn't resist. And she didn't protest. The space they shared began to warm. And Ruby, with her face buried in it, finally got to feel just how impossibly soft Weiss' snow-white hair was.

The vampire didn't say a word. But as Ruby drifted off to sleep, she figured that was as close to a 'thank you' as she was going to get that night.


	7. Chapter 7 - Burning Dawn

Dawn.

Early dawn.

Glistening dew on the grass, in the trees. Banks of mist and fog rolled down from the peaks of the Zhang mountains high overhead. The sun silhouetted those same peaks, trying to rise over them with all the strength it could muster.

The valley below was still cast in shadow. A hundred tents stood in orderly rows and columns. Soldiers rose from them groggily, starting fires and muttering amongst themselves as sentries on the perimeter stood careful watch. Dawn and dusk were the two best times to launch an attack or an ambush. Every soldier knew that.

Ruby laid still in the dew-spotted grass on a ridgeline overlooking the encampment, nursing her bandaged, but still aching right hand. Below her, Weiss was somewhere in the forest of tents, making her way to the center, where a large, four-corner tent held the command post of the company. A giant flag displaying a roaring dragon stood in front of it: the symbol of a proud and rising Jaestin Empire.

Ruby felt a chill run down her back, and it wasn't from the morning cold. It was simply from a display of sheer military might. Soldiers were strapping on their armor. Bronze dragon-headed helmets reared in the fiery light of the sun peeking over the Zhangs, looking as if they would breathe fire of their own at any moment.

And this was only the merest fraction of what the Empire could muster. This was only a fragment of their legions.

She breathed out low and steady, watching for a sign of anything amiss. The plan itself was quite simple. Weiss would ghostwalk into the encampment, sneak into the command tent, and figure out what their plan was, what their reason for coming to Altar was. The temple city itself was just over a ridgeline on the opposite side of the valley. A brief march by any measure. The company could have the city occupied and under total control in less than an hour.

But on the other hand, the camp wasn't in a very defensible position. It was in a clearing yes, and a only a short march from Altar, but there was raised ground and ridge-lines overlooking it from all sides. Like the one Ruby was currently perched atop of. If someone decided the attack the camp, like say, a vampire clan whose best interests did not involve an Imperial Company snooping around, it would quickly become a rout. It was a location chosen by someone who was not expecting an attack.

That was what they were hoping to avoid. Weiss had been fairly certain the Imperial Company was only here for training or border patrol, and she was also fairly certain that there was no way they could know about the vampire clan in the mountains above them. There was no other option but to warn them. Which was, once again, what Weiss was currently seeing about doing. Weiss. The one sneaking inside the camp. While she sat here on the ridgeline. As 'backup.' She sighed.

Weiss. The vampire she had actually _slept with_ last night. It still didn't feel real. She could almost feel her still, warm and fragile and thin. She had held Weiss through her whimpering and her thrashing, and in the morning when they had awoke, not a single word of it had been mentioned besides a muttered 'thank you' from Weiss.

Ruby had simply nodded and smiled. She respected the vampire's privacy if nothing else. She was simply glad that she had been the one to hold her when she needed it.

Ruby let out yet another sigh and tried to get comfortable. She felt useless. Her hand hadn't healed enough to allow her use of Crescent Rose again, but she was still a solid hand with a longsword. She just wanted to feel useful again.

She wanted to closer her eyes and rest. But it was still dark in the valley where the company had camped, so she kept her guard up. There was no way of knowing if-

Did that shadow just move?

She stared closer at the other side of the encampment, where she could have sworn that a group of shadows were... moving closer to the camp? The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. They were coming from every direction now, shadowy figures moving into the camp from all sides. Where were the sentries? She frantically searched for them, cursing when she saw them go down silently, one by one. Poisoned arrows. It was the vampire clan. There was no other explanation. And Weiss was in there, in the camp. She would need help.

She braced herself to stand up, when she suddenly heard something shifting behind her. She rolled to the side and stood in one smooth motion, and a large sword blade thumped into the ground next to her. She turned, pulling her sword, the sound loud and clear in the dawn. Two of them; two vampires right behind her. They were wearing black cloaks and masks. They charged soundlessly at her.

She did the one thing that would to ruin their plan. She screamed. The vampires stopped in their tracks, their eyes wide. One of them charged at her. She spun and dodged, then kept screaming. She screamed loud and hard. A chorus of shouts and yells began to rise from the encampment below. At least they would be on alert. But she had other problems right now.

The vampire with the heavy sword stepped towards her and swung at her waist. She dodged backwards, the tip of the blade barely missing her stomach. The other vampire rushed her from the side with two daggers. Ruby waited until just the right moment, pretending she was only paying attention to the one with the broadsword. When dagger-wielder was close enough, she spun and thrust the point of her sword into his face. He went down with a gurgling shriek. His daggers stopped inches from her neck.

"Amateur," she giggled.

The vampire with the greatsword roared and swung at her from over his head, but he was clumsy and ill-experienced, and she easily sidestepped his next three blows. When he drew his sword back for a fourth one and stepped an inch too close, she lashed out and slashed his throat with the tip of her blade. He reeled backwards, dropping his greatsword, and she stepped in and ran him through the stomach. She ripped the sword out of his belly, and he dropped.

The threat eliminated, her senses extended beyond her immediate surroundings. Now she could hear shouts and roars, clashes of steel and screams of pain coming from the camp. Sounds of battle. Which, at the very least, meant they weren't all being murdered in their sleep. She stepped to the edge of the ridge and surveyed the scene. It wasn't good.

The outer edges of the camp were ablaze, burning tents streaming fire and smoke into the early dawn air. The fighting was still holding steady just inside the outer limits of the camp, but judging by the number of vampires still moving in, concealed by the shadow the mountain peaks overhead cast, they wouldn't last much longer. No time to waste.

"Well Weiss," she muttered, "someone's gotta save your pretty face from your own kind."

She took off down the ridge, running as fast as she could. She build up speed quickly. The landscape whipped by in a blur as she approached the outer line of tents, her momentum carrying her faster than she could have managed on her own. A blazing tent reared in front of her and she leapt right into it, turning her dive into a roll. She came to her feet on the other side – right into the hell of combat.

Flames and screams were all around her. Men were fighting like devils; vampires were fighting like demons. Imperial soldiers in bronze armor wielding falchions and spears wrestled and dueled black-clad vampires. Fists met faces, steel pierced flesh, vampires tackled soldiers to the ground and tore their throats out with vicious shrieks.

Ruby ignored it all and ran straight, taking running swipes at any vampires that got too close as she sprinted and dodged her way to the command tent in the center of the encampment. It only took her half a minute. A horn rang out low and powerful, calling the soldiers not yet in battle to form up defensively, but it was too late for that. With a shriek, the horn-blower was shot through the neck by a barbed arrowhead. Ruby watched him topple to the ground as she vaulted a hasty barricade erected by the Imperial soldiers, literally leaping over their heads. They were too busy with the vampires assaulting them to notice.

The command tent was directly ahead, halfway ablaze and torn in several places. Ruby could hear swords clashing inside. Had the vampires made it this far already? She slashed a wide hole in the outer layer and leapt inside.

The Imperial commander – a man with the jade dragon helm and ornate sword – was down on the ground, wrestling with a large, heavyset vampire. Weiss was in the center of the tent, dueling the only vampire hunter Ruby hadn't fought yet. Ae. The wisp of a girl that had said nothing during their first meeting. She was spinning and jumping and twirling around Weiss with a curved, two-headed dagger in each hand, and the vampire was only barely keeping up with her rapier.

Ruby didn't even think about who to help. She barreled towards Weiss, towards Ae, slamming into the smaller woman and taking her to the ground. She howled as Ae drove a dagger into her shoulder, but she managed to catch the girl's other wrist before she could do the same with her second knife.

"Weiss! Help him!" she shouted. "I've got her!"

Weiss nodded and ran over to the other side of the tent to help the commander. Unfortunately, Ruby didn't have as firm of a grip as she thought. Ae somehow managed to wriggle free of her grasp in seconds, as if she was made of silk. Ruby growled and rolled, pulling her sword as Ae scrambled to her feet and dropped into a duelist's stance with her daggers. She reared her hand back and threw one.

It was a lazy throw, and Ruby easily moved her head to the side and dodged it. "The heck was that?" the brunette laughed. "Is that really the best you've got?"

Ae stared at her. "No. It was a distraction." Her voice was like a phantoms, indistinct and blurry. It was unnerving.

"A distraction? For what?"

Ae pointed at the tent wall next to Ruby. "For that."

Ruby glanced at the tent flap in puzzlement, just in time to see a boot burst through it and catch her in the midsection with the force of a runaway wagon. She flew through the air and sprawled out onto her stomach, the unforgiving ground knocking the wind out of her.

Her vision swimming, she looked up at the tent flap as a giant, ebony-skinned woman stepped through it and grinned at her.

"Miss me?" Iskaer drawled.

"Seriously?" Ruby coughed. "You've got to be kidding me!"

Weiss turned from the vampire she had just killed, the one that had been wrestling with the Imperial Captain. The man stood up and drew his own sword, his chest heaving and his face running with blood.

"How are you still alive?" Weiss asked incredulously. "I put six swords into you!"

"You must have missed my heart child," Iskaer laughed, flexing her arms and showing off her scars. "I'm Kurt. Ever heard of them? Tribes of warriors from the southern deserts? There's a reason we're the highest paid mercenaries in the world."

Weiss narrowed her eyes and stepped into a fighting stance. "Well why are you here then? Why not back in the south?"

Iskaer dropped into her own fighting stance, like that of a bear standing on its hind legs. She grinned. "Because vampire hunting paid better. And betraying them and helping these vampires paid even better than that."

It was like watching a mountain lion pounce. One second Iskaer was still, the next the giant woman was launching herself at Ruby with a roar. At the same time Ae leapt through the air without a sound, spiraling and spinning towards Weiss and the Imperial Captain.

Ruby found herself immediately on the defensive, scrambling to get away. Iskaer wasn't using any weapons besides her own leather-wrapped fists, but they were more than enough. Ruby was forced to use her sword like a spear, jabbing and poking and circling Iskaer to try and keep the grizzly bear of a woman away from her. She made a misstep though, and found herself stumbling backwards over a destroyed table in the center of the tent. Iskaer leapt on the opportunity, swatting the flat of her sword away with her palm and dive-tackling Ruby to the ground.

On her back, trying to catch her breath, Ruby covered her face with her arms and tried to dodge as Iskaer straddled her and rained hammer-fist after hammer-fist upon her. Iskaer was laughing. Ruby twisted her legs, trying to remember what little ground-fighting Yang had taught her, trying to shift her weight and slip out from under the larger woman. But Iskaer was better, bigger, and stronger than her, and Ruby found there was little more she could do besides guard her face and hold on.

Iskaer grabbed one of her wrists and pulled it away from her face, yelling something about not being such a weak coward. Ruby fought to protect herself with her free hand, but Iskaer punched her in the side of the head, making her vision go blurry and her mind fuzzy. Iskaer kept punching the side of her head. It hurt like hell, and she had to fight not to cry out. She used her free hand to try and cover the side of her head. So instead of the side, Iskaer simply slammed her fist into the front of her open, unprotected face. Ruby felt her nose break. She growled in pain, but something inside her kept holding on. She tasted blood. Her shoulder ached from where she had been stabbed by Ae earlier, preventing her from moving it fully to keep up with Iskaer's strikes. And blow by blow, Iskaer took her apart.

This was it. It was over. This is how she would go, beaten to death by a grizzly bear with fists of brick in a flaming tent.

And then the blows stopped. Her head was so dull and fuzzy that it actually took her a few seconds to register the absence of pain. Something warm was dripping down onto her chest, soaking through her clothes. She opened her eyes, her free arm still defending her bruised, beaten face. Iskaer was still straddling her, hovering over her face, still grinning. But she wasn't moving anymore. And Ruby saw what the warmth dripping down onto her chest was. It was blood.

The tip of Weiss' rapier was protruding from her throat. Hot lifeblood was spilling from the wound. But still, even still, she was slowly drawing her fist back for another blow. Weiss, breathing hard and standing over her, put her shoulder against the bear-woman and shoved her off of Ruby.

Ruby smiled and laughed, choking the noise out of her throat. She couldn't think of anything else to do. "Thankssh," she mumbled. She couldn't speak clearly for some reason. Probably because of the blood filling her mouth. "Whuh happened ta Ae?"

Weiss smiled back and offered her hand. "She fled when the captain and I gained the upper hand. And you're welcome, dolt."

The vampire hauled her up, but Ruby immediately stumbled down onto her knees and started throwing up. Her head swimming, she held her hand up to show she was alright. Blurrily, she heard the Imperial Captain tell them that he was going to go rally his men. Ruby thew up again, unable to do much more than lay on the ground and hold herself.

"Well," Weiss muttered next to her, "your nose is definitely broken."

Ruby was only barely able to mutter back: "No shhit."

* * *

Almost half an hour later, Weiss helped a semi-conscious Ruby stumble around the remains of the Imperial camp. The sun had finally risen, shining ironically bright down onto the scene of stained Imperial pride.

Over half the company of two hundred men were dead. Half the camp was nothing but cinders and ash, and most of their supplies had been destroyed or stolen. The vampires had retreated soon after, apparently only aiming to kill the captain, smash the company's cohesion, and dismantle their leadership structure. They had failed in their first objective thanks to Ruby and Weiss, but the damage was done. And even worse, they had taken most of their dead with them when they retreated. Some men were claiming they gave as well as they got, but for over a hundred dead Imperial soldiers, there were only two dozen or so vampire corpses to show for it.

Morale had shattered. Even Ruby, her head still swimming like an ocean under a typhoon, could see that much. The men looked broken. Some were still clutching their weapons, jumping at shadows and shouting at their friends. The few officers that remained, as well as the captain, were keeping them busy building trenches and earthworks, hauling the dead into a massive funeral pyre, and gathering what supplies they could. It was the smart thing to do. A man left alone with his thoughts after a defeat like this was a danger to himself.

Captain Zhao, his head still high, strode over towards Ruby and her vampire companion, who were resting on a crate of supplies near the command tent. Weiss had a cloth to Ruby's nose. It was still bleeding slightly.

"And who, exactly," he started, "are you?"

Ruby and Weiss both spoke at the same time, then stopped, then tried to start again.

Weiss growled in frustration. "Just keep quiet you dunce, let me do the talking. You're too hurt to be thinking straight right now."

"Oh I assure you, I'm totally fine now Princess. But yeah I-"

She suddenly threw up again. Weiss tutted and wiped her chin. The captain stared, looking halfway disgusted.

"So?" he asked. His accent was thick. From the heart of the Empire. "I don't have time to waste here. I need to know who you are, why you helped me, and why my company just suffered an ambush from a clan of vampires that we knew nothing about."

Ruby started to speak again, but Weiss clapped her hand over her mouth. She immediately withdrew it after she realized Ruby had just thrown up.

"We're vampire hunters," the white-haired vampire replied. "Actual vampire hunters, not the scum that just attacked you in your tent. Those two called themselves vampire hunters, but they were in league with the vampire clan that just attacked you. It's a complicated situation you've walked into here, Captain."

A man with more ornate armor than the others – presumably a sergeant or lieutenant – entered the tent and said something in Jaestinian to the captain. Jaestinian was a thick, heavy language. The only reason some people in Altar spoke the basic language of the Dural Territories was because they were so close to the border. The captain said something in Jaestinian back, clapping his hand on the man's shoulder, and the man bowed and ducked out of the tent.

"Apologies," Captain Zhao continued. "So. This vampire clan. Tell me more about them."

This time, Ruby didn't even try to answer first. She did however, notice that Weiss was talking in a lower voice than usual, in an apparent effort to open her mouth less when speaking and thus hide her fangs. Smart. They weren't the most noticeable fangs Ruby had ever seen on a vampire, thankfully.

"They live in the mountains to the north of your camp," Weiss began. "The spur overlooking Altar. I doubt this is their ancestral home, but it's where they're operating out of. They're not hunting people regularly; that's why you weren't informed of them. They're working with the Priest of Light: the ruling priest of Altar. He has pilgrims, religious servants, or regular citizens do a bit of dirty work for him out at night, tells the leader of the vampire clan, and then they swoop down and take them. They pay the Priest of Light with gold, he gets rid of his opponents and detractors, and everyone wins."

The captain was silent for several moments, his hand on his chin. "How is this possible? No one has noticed the disappearances?"

"They have," Weiss replied, "but those vampire hunters that attacked you had everyone convinced it was simple wolves, or falls from the cliff, or unannounced travel plans. They _were_ actual vampire hunters, before they started working with Ryker: the de-facto Lord of these vampires. He calls himself a Lord. But I doubt he has the blood of one. Sorry. Too much information for now."

Zhao sighed, his eyes sunken and blood-shot. He hadn't yet cleaned the blood off of his face, but Ruby had noticed him cleaning and treating other wounded soldiers earlier. "If I hadn't just suffered an attack by these vampires," Zhao muttered gravely, "I wouldn't believe any of this. Consider yourselves lucky in that, if nothing else. However, I am not going to condemn the Priest of Light just yet. Not until I am presented with evidence that indicts him."

He stood and straightened his armor, then put his hand on his sword.

"This vampire clan, however? _They_ are a clear and present threat. My company was only here for training and border patrol, but I will not let this go unpunished. I lost a hundred and eleven men today. Their deaths will _not_ go unanswered."

Ruby smirked. She liked his spirit.

"Well," Weiss replied, "you'll be glad to hear that I have a plan to destroy them."

Zhao raised his eyebrow. "And how do you know so much about them?"

Weiss pointed her thumb at Ruby. "My partner and I have been operating in this area for some time now. We haven't made much headway on our own, but with your help, I think we can wipe out this clan."

Zhao settled back against his map table. "Very well. Let's hear it."

* * *

"But why do I have to do it?" Ruby pouted, back at Weiss' cave later that night. It had been a long day. They had spent several hours helping Zhao by informing him and his men how best to kill vampires. Apparently they weren't as common in the Empire as they were in the Dural Territories.

"Calm down you idiot," Weiss muttered, wiping at the bruises on Ruby's face with a hot cloth. A warm fire with a pot over it in the center of the cave gave the air a gentle warmth. "You know why. They know me; they've seen me. You're the only one they won't recognize."

Ruby sighed and crossed her arms, sticking out her bottom lip. "Yeah. Fine. I guess. As long as Ae's not there. She's seen me."

"Too cute," Weiss mumbled.

"What?"

"N-Nothing," the vampire quickly countered. "And Ae will have gone into hiding somewhere else. The vampires weren't fond of her. You understand the plan, right? What has to happen? It'll probably be a few days before everything is in place anyway. You can just rest here while I do all the work."

"I guess," Ruby repeated, trying not to think about how close Weiss was. "I sit here and wait while you go out and scout in Altar, which should be okay now since Ae is in hiding and the other two vampire hunters are dead. Once you find out which group of people the Priest of Light is gonna give up to the vampires next, I'll sneak in with them and get taken by the vampires too. Ouch."

"Sorry," Weiss muttered. She had dabbed at Ruby's broken nose a little too hard.

"Then I'll be captured and all," Ruby continued, "you'll ghostwalk into their lair and free me, and then we go and kill Ryker, the vampire lord, before anyone has time to react. Then we escape and signal Zhao, and he and his men move in and clear out the vampire's lair while they're confused and leaderless."

Weiss smirked. "So you were paying attention after all."

"I'm always paying attention. But you know, I had literally just gotten the stuffing beat out of me. Give me a break, will ya?"

Weiss chuckled. "Fine. You are awarded one break, for the next stupid, doltish, imbecilic thing you do. And don't worry, like I said it'll probably take me a few days to gather intel from Altar and figure out when and where the next group of humans will get taken. Your nose should be set by then, as long as you rest and properly apply this poultice I'm mixing for you daily."

Ruby looked over at the pot boiling on top of the fire. It was starting to emanate a strange smell. She wrinkled her nose, and then immediately recoiled in pain. Wrinkling a broken nose, it turned out, was quite painful.

Weiss sighed and rolled her eyes. "There goes your free break already. That sure was fast."

"Well maybe if your 'poultice' didn't smell like rotten cheese," Ruby gagged. "What's in that junk anyway?"

"Eggs, sap, leaves from the tinsel tree on the ridge above us," Weiss counted off on her fingers, "frog legs, bird droppings, wolf teeth, and deer tongue."

Ruby stared at her, holding her nose and narrowing her eyes.

Weiss grinned. "I'm joking."

She let out a sigh of relief.

"About the bird droppings."

"Augh! Are you serious!" Ruby crawled backwards away from the pot. "I'm not drinking that!"

Weiss moved over to the fire and checked the pot. "Calm down you big baby. It's not that bad. And it's not like you have to drink it or anything. You literally just have to smear it on your nose."

"Ew, gross... What's it gonna be, some kind of paste?"

"Well done," Weiss mocked. "You've correctly deduced that to be able to smear it on your face, it has to be a paste. I applaud your skills."

"Hah hah," Ruby replied. Her voice was nasally at times, due to her broken nose. "You wouldn't be making fun of me if you'd been the one almost beaten to death by a giant bear of a woman. You know what, this wouldn't have even happened if you'd have just killed her the first time!"

Weiss closed the lid on the pot, and moved over to the entrance of the cave to check on the camouflaged door of woven sticks and leaves. "You could have checked to see that she was dead just as easily when you went back for your scythe, remember?"

Ruby held up her finger to disagree, then realized that Weiss was right. "Y-Yeah. I guess. Man, this figures. As soon as my hand heals, my nose gets broken. And my face got all beaten and bruised too." She faced Weiss, putting on her best smile. "C'mon, be honest, how bad does it look?"

Weiss turned, gave her an appraising look, and smiled. "You look fine Ruby. It's not that bad. Just some mild swelling."

"Geez, that's it? Not gonna tell me how pretty I am or something?"

"W-What? Most certainly not."The vampire blushed and hurriedly looked away, busying herself with her sleeping roll. "That sort of baseless flattery is beneath me."

Ruby put on her best pouting face. "Aw. So I'm not pretty?"

Weiss purposefully kept her back to the vampire hunter. Ruby suspected she knew why. At this point, she was simply teasing.

"Fine," Weiss huffed. "Yes, you're pretty, okay? What do you want from me? A signed letter certifying your attractiveness? Not that I'm attracted to you, or anything of the sort. One, you're a woman, two, you're a human, three-"

"Yeesh Weiss," Ruby interrupted, laughing. "I didn't ask you if you liked me or not. I just asked if I was pretty. Don't get your panties in a bunch."

Weiss lifted the hem of her waistline and looked inside. "My panties are most certainly not in a bunch!"

Ruby started laughing so hard that she almost fell down. It hurt her nose too. "W-Weiss, it's a figure of speech! Just a saying!"

The vampire turned around and glared at her. Her face was redder than both of Ruby's namesakes. "I'm not an idiot! I know that!"

Ruby didn't bother responding. She was laughing too hard. Weiss huffed indignantly and turned back to her sleeping roll, rolling it out on the other side of the fire and settling down on it. She kept her back to the vampire hunter.

"Just for that you dunce, you get first watch tonight," the vampire said.

"Fine, fine," Ruby gasped. She took a few seconds to catch her breath and wipe at her eyes. "I-I need to apply that poultice thingy anyway. Is it done yet?"

Weiss rolled over to look at the pot. It was steaming. "Yes. Just take the pot off of the fire and let it cool for an hour or so. Then it should be ready." The vampire turned back over again.

Ruby did as she instructed. "Hey Weiss?"

The vampire looked at her over her shoulder.

"Thanks for saving my life."

And just as Ruby thought she would, she blushed and turned back over.

"Goodnight, dunce," Weiss muttered.

Ruby chuckled. "Night night Princess."

She sighed and sat down against the wall of the cave, facing the door while Weiss shifted on her sleeping mat and got comfortable. She took out her cleaning kit, grabbed Crescent Rose, and started cleaning it. And then she started thinking about Weiss. Maybe it was due to her unnaturally pale skin, but that vampire sure blushed a lot. And Ruby noticed it only happened when she was around. Only when they were talking one on one. Together. Alone.

Weiss let out a tiny wheeze. She made that same sound every time she fell asleep, without fail. It was almost unbearably cute.

Ruby let out a heavy breath as she followed her previous line of thinking: about Weiss blushing every time she was around. There was no way Weiss thought of her that way, right? The vampire had just stated two reasons, even half-jokingly. One, she apparently didn't like women, and two, she wasn't attracted to humans. But she could have just been saying that to deflect attention from herself...

"Why are women so hard to figure out?" Ruby muttered to herself.

* * *

"Huh... Hmm. Well, looks okay," Ruby muttered to herself.

She tilted the small mirror again, examining her face. It had been almost a full week already. Weiss had brought the mirror back from Altar a few days ago. She had bought it. Supposedly. On the bright side, her nose appeared to be healed. It was back in place, her bruises had faded, and even her burned hand felt much better.

She hadn't had much to do the past week Weiss had been scouting Altar, so she had been practicing with Crescent Rose a lot. She felt like she was back in top form.

With her face checked out and her worries satisfied, she leaned back against her sleeping roll and let out a bored sigh. Weiss had only been back for a few hours total in the past week. And no matter how she tried to think her way out of it, she couldn't deny that she missed the vampire terribly. It wasn't so much boredom and having no one to talk to, it was more of a... longing. And with that feeling came a realization. One she didn't necessarily want to face.

"I've fallen for a freaking vampire," Ruby mumbled. "Yang would be laughing so hard right now."

She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, and just as she did so she heard the telltale sound of footsteps navigating the cliffside ledge outside the entrance to the cave.

Ruby's heart skipped a beat. It sounded like Weiss: she had memorized the sound of her bootsteps. Still, she kept her hand on Crescent Rose, ready to use it if she had to. But when the sticks-and-leaves door to the cave opened, the first thing Ruby saw was a shock of white hair.

"Weiss!" she exclaimed.

The vampire quickly closed the door and put her finger over her lips. "Shush you dolt. You don't know if someone followed me or not."

"Sorry," Ruby practically squealed. "But you're back!"

She could barely control her happiness and excitement. She scrambled over to Weiss and tackled the woman to the floor, wrapping her in a tight hug and squeezing with all her might.

"L-Let go of me you dolt!" Weiss hissed, trying to free herself from Ruby's grasp. "You're squeezing too tight!"

Ruby couldn't help but notice how half-hearted Weiss' attempts to escape were. As if she wasn't actually trying at all. Still, she loosened her grasp.

"Sorry Princess," Ruby giggled. "I'm just really happy to see you!"

"I could tell," the vampire deadpanned, pushing her way out of Ruby's arms and getting to her feet. "Ugh. You almost made me forget what I had to say."

Ruby sat back and looked up at her companion, grinning stupidly and unable to stop. "Oh yeah?"

"Yes," Weiss replied, brushing herself off and sitting down by the fire. "Light this for us, would you?"

Ruby stood up and grabbed some logs and sticks from the stockpile in the back of the cave, piled them onto the fire, and pulled a flint from her pocket. While she busied herself with fire-starting, Weiss talked.

"Long story short, I found out where the next group of humans is going to be taken. It wasn't easy, but I snuck into Priests' personal chambers, very gaudy and ostentatious by the way, and found a scroll of his, detailing all of his previous and upcoming dealings with the vampires." Ruby and Weiss had taken to shortening 'Priest of Light' to just 'Priest.' "Call him what you will, but he keeps meticulous records. Apparently he's not one to be swindled, even by vampires."

Ruby struck the flint furiously, and finally a few sparks leapt from it onto the sticks. She blew on it gently, and a fire started to flare to life. "Oh yeah?" she asked. "So where is it?"

Weiss held her hands up to the fire. It had been a cold day in the Zhang mountains. "On the outskirts of the city, on the north side. Tonight. A small clearing with a minor temple. Priest found out that a small group would be meeting there tonight, and told his vampire friends. Apparently the temple is to the god of the moon, and Priest even told them that if they pray there that night, they'll receive 'special blessings'. At least, that's what he wrote in his scroll. He even records the lies he tells his people." Weiss looked disgusted. "He's scum Ruby. Utter scum."

Ruby whistled. "Yeah. That's pretty terrible. But hey, at least we can finally stop it now. And we can probably save those people too."

"Yes," Weiss muttered, staring into the fire. "Yes we can."

Silence reigned over the cave for a few moments.

Ruby felt a nervousness grow in the pit of her stomach as the silence deepened. She examined it and realized, deep down, that a part of her was scared of being captured by the vampires. It was nothing she hadn't dealt with before, but... This time, she was _scared_ of dying. For almost the first time in her life, she valued it. She didn't want to die. Why was that?

She looked over at Weiss. Her heart throbbed. She grinned helplessly and looked at the floor.

"Ah," she muttered. "That's why."

"What?" Weiss asked. "Speak up dolt. I can't hear you when you mumble."

"Nothing. I was just saying I'm kinda nervous and all. About being captured. These vampires aren't so bad, right?"

Weiss was silent for several moments, which only deepened Ruby's worries. "Some are. Some aren't," the vampire finally answered. "But I promise you, I won't let anything happen to you. As soon as you get captured and you're on the inside, I'll sneak in and free you, alright? It just has to happen this way, because while I can get inside fine on my own, there's no way for you to sneak in too. And it's going to require both of us to kill Ryker."

"Yeah," Ruby agreed. "Makes sense. Tell me more about him."

"He's needlessly cruel," Weiss huffed. "He's taking care of his own people sure, but he considers humans as a lower form of life. Like cattle. Like my father did. He wields a massive sword, so the best way to beat him would be to get in close and hit him with quick strikes. Our best strategy would be for you to hold him at bay with your scythe and keep him busy, so I can get in close when the moment is right and get inside his guard."

Ruby grinned. "Ooh, now you're getting me excited. My baby up against a giant sword? Now that sounds like fun."

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Of course it would to you. Just don't underestimate him. That strange fear you feel in these mountains when night falls? That's _his_ power. That's the reason we don't go out at night. He may be able to manipulate darkness to some degree. Like I said, I'm not sure if he's actually a vampire lord, or just a very powerful vampire. Vampire lorddom is hereditary. Being a powerful vampire and manifesting powers is just due to age, practice, and skill."

"What's the difference?" Ruby asked.

"A powerful vampire, while powerful, is still all tricks and show. He could make people feel a strange fear at night and maybe conceal himself in the shadows, but that's about it. A vampire lord however, could manipulate the darkness itself. Use it as a weapon, or armor. Blind people. Snare them in shadows. Blot out the sun during the day. But like I said, he's probably just a powerful vampire. I haven't heard of him using powers more powerful than the fear you feel in the dark shrouding these mountains at night."

"Hmm," Ruby replied. " We shouldn't underestimate him then, yeah. Oh hey, wasn't your father a vampire lord?"

"He was," Weiss nodded.

"Well uh... what was his power? He didn't use darkness or anything when I fought him."

Weiss pulled her knees to herself and scooted closer to the fire. "He could make a person stop fighting. And I don't mean drop their weapons or run away or anything, I mean literally lose all knowledge and awareness that a concept like fighting even exists in the first place."

Images flashed through Ruby's mind. Yang standing in the middle of the main castle chamber, coughing blood. Her hands at her side, smiling at her.

 _"Hey Ruby. Take care of yourself, okay? I love you."_

Ruby's eyes widened. Yang hadn't even put up a fight. There hadn't been a scratch on Weiss' father. Her fists clenched.

"That's probably how he killed your sister." Weiss spoke up. "But it was a limited power. He couldn't use it on you right after using it on her. That's how you bested him."

Ruby nodded slowly, letting her anger go. She was past that now. "Right. Well, you said being a vampire lord is hereditary? So what about you? What's your power? Isn't ghostwalking totally separate?"

"It is," Weiss agreed. "And as for my power..." The vampire turned her hand over in the light of the fire, gazing at it intently. "I don't know. I don't think it's manifested yet. Or if it has, I haven't noticed."

"Oh. Well how will you know when you do get your power, whatever it is?"

Weiss shrugged. "I don't know that either."

"Well that sucks," Ruby giggled. "Your father never told you?"

"He said 'you'll know it when it happens.' Whatever that means," Weiss huffed. "Just another thing I have to deal with, on top of ghostwalking."

"Yeah. And you're good for that, right? I know you were saying it was getting worse. Are you sure you want to use it to sneak into the vampire lair?"

Weiss looked at her. "Do you see any other option?"

"Huh. Yeah, no. Not really."

"That's what I figured."

Ruby returned to cleaning Crescent Rose, and Weiss took two freshly-caught rabbits from the rack in the back of the cave and began to skin them near the fire. Ruby started humming while she cleaned.

"Do you ever get tired of cleaning that thing?" Weiss grumbled after a few minutes. "I understand neatness and keeping things in working order, but what you do goes beyond that. I'm surprised you haven't scrubbed that thing into pieces yet."

"I dunno, do you ever get tired of nagging?" Ruby joked.

Weiss glared at her. Ruby started giggling. And then out of the ice of that cold, constantly scowling face, a smile began to crack.

"You're smiling! I see it!" Ruby laughed.

Weiss frowned again, but it seemed forced. "Am not, you dunce." She finished skinning the rabbits and started putting the meat on the iron rack over the fire.

Ruby chuckled and continued cleaning her scythe. "Oh, hey Weiss, serious question though."

"What." Weiss deadpanned.

"How do you uh... I mean, are you okay with all this? What we're gonna do? Or try to do? You know, wiping out a whole clan of vampires?"

Weiss looked up at the ceiling of the cave. "It's really not as big of a deal as you think it is. I've seen them. I know them. Some are okay, but most are the kind of terrible vampires that you humans fear. And the okay ones just go along with them. Maybe I can't blame them. But if I ever want things to improve between humans and vampires, clans like this have to be eliminated. We can't possibly ask you humans for peace if we're still hunting you like prey."

Ruby nodded.

"Or in this case, exchanging them for gold like livestock," Weiss continued. Her ice-blue eyes shone hard and resolute. "Don't worry Ruby. I'm sure. I'm committed. You don't have to worry about me."

Ruby smiled at her. "Yeah. I trust you now."

A gentle smile appeared on Weiss' face, making her seem beautiful beyond measure. Ruby's heart swelled. She indulged herself for a few seconds, simply watching Weiss, but then she had to look away. She had to look away, lest she get trapped staring at that white-haired vampire's entrancing face, unable to look away ever again.

She ended up looking at the cave entrance, and noticed the sun setting further down through the grass-and-sticks door.

"Almost nighttime," Ruby spoke up. She stood and picked up Crescent Rose. "Ready to do this?"

Weiss stared at the fire half a second longer. "After we eat. Then we go."

Ruby giggled. "Your stomach is so much bigger than the rest of your body. How can you eat so much?"

Weiss glared at her. "Keep it up, and I just won't rescue you at all."

"Kidding Weiss, kidding," the vampire hunter chuckled. "But uh... can I have some?"

Weiss scowled and rolled her eyes. But she handed Ruby some of the meat anyway.

* * *

"Well, there they are," Weiss whispered. "Are you ready?"

Ruby nodded. They were on a small hilltop overlooking a small temple on the outskirts of Altar. The temple was apparently dedicated to the worship of the moon god. It was a small, circular affair ringed with pillars and artwork featuring the moon in its various phases of waxing and waning. There were other temples nearby too, but this was the only one that showed any signs of life.

Torchlight shone out from within, and Ruby could hear a few people talking and moving around within. She sighed and stood.

"This is it, huh?"

Weiss stood with her. "Yes. This is it."

Ruby handed Crescent Rose over to the vampire. "You keep my baby safe, got it? I don't want a single scratch on her."

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Sure. Your 'baby' will be fine. It's not like you'll be parted for long. I'm going to sneak it in with me, remember?"

Ruby nodded. The nervousness was still there, rolling and swirling in the pit of her stomach. Perhaps it showed in her eyes, because Weiss put a hand on her shoulder and cleared her throat.

And then said nothing. Ruby tilted her head.

"Don't... don't die," Weiss finally got out.

The vampire hunter laughed. "That's it? Don't die? Geez, thanks for the support."

"I just... You need to stay alive until I rescue you, understand you dunce? I can't do this without you."

Ruby felt a sudden warmth in her chest. She smiled. "Thanks Weiss. I couldn't do this without you either."

The vampire's cheeks went red. "T-That's not what I meant! I just meant that-"

Ruby stepped forward and pulled her partner into a strong embrace. Weiss froze. And then, surprisingly, a few seconds later, she returned it. She brought her hands up slowly and wrapped them around Ruby's midsection. The warmth in Ruby's chest glowed. Then, strangely, she felt something cold and sharp on her neck. She pulled away to find Weiss with her mouth open, her fangs out, staring at her neck. Ruby's eyes went wide.

"Hey, Weiss," she snapped. "Weiss, wake up!"

The vampire suddenly shook her head, taking a shaky step back. "S-Sorry. I don't know what that was. I'm sorry."

"You need to feed, don't you?" Ruby asked.

"No!" Weiss hissed. "No, I'm fine. It was just a temporary thing. It happens to vampires sometimes."

"Sure," Ruby replied with a sad smile. She wished Weiss wouldn't lie to herself like this. She knew it had been months since Weiss had fed. "Well if you do need to, I'm right here. My neck is always open for you."

Weiss blushed and looked at the ground. "Y-You should go," the vampire whispered. "Just stay safe, okay?"

Ruby stepped forward and pulled her back into a tight hug. This time she didn't feel anything on her neck. "Yeah. Don't worry Princess. As long as I have you coming to my rescue, I'll be fine."

She released the embrace, and Weiss stepped back and coughed, looking at the temple instead of at her. "Go you dunce," the vampire muttered. "They'll be here any moment."

Ruby shot her one last smile. "Yeap. See you soon."

She took off down the hill, lightly jogging at first, then slowing to a slow walk as she approached the temple door. The moon was high and bright overhead, lighting up the night. She glanced behind her, at the hill. Weiss was nowhere to be seen. And then the nervousness came back. She swallowed it down and entered the bright candlelight of the temple. There was a man in creamy white robes by the door, and he seemed startled by her approach.

"Well hello there," he said. Several people in similar white robes inside the temple turned to look at her.

There wasn't much inside, only a few stone benches and some statues of a half-naked man carrying various stages of the moon in his hands. Some people were praying. The others were looking at her with various stages of mistrust. All in all, there were maybe eight people total, not including herself. Not enough to be noticed in a city like Altar.

She smiled despite herself. "Hi. Sorry to intrude. I heard about the gathering, and I just wanted to uh, find out more about the moon god. Is that okay?"

The man finally smiled back. "Ah. An aspiring disciple, then. Well, if you wish to learn of Audisus, lord of the night sky and reflector of light, then you have come to the right place indeed. I am Rael. I'm the caretaker of this small temple. What do you wish to know?"

The night deepened as they started to talk. Ruby launched into a barrage of questions, and Rael seemed happy to answer each and every one with at least a convincing facade of actual knowledge of the subject. The other patrons soon accepted her presence, and went back to praying or discussing moon-related topics. The night was cool but not cold, and as a thin breeze swept in from the open roof of the temple and swirled about inside, Ruby almost forgot she was waiting to be captured by vampires. She wished she could have warned these people. She really did.

And most of them, at least the ones she was introduced to, seemed like genuinely nice, accepting people. Her resolve hardened. She would save them. All of them. No matter what she had to do.

When a shadow cast itself down onto the floor from the open roof, she pretended to ignore it. When she heard rustling outside, she kept talking to Rael and pretended she heard nothing. The others truly seemed to not notice. But then again, she was trained to notice such things. They weren't. They had the illusion of safety to blind them. She didn't.

So when the candles inside went out and the screaming started, and blurry black shapes rushed inside and started pricking people with needles that caused them to collapse in a heap, she played along. Even if her act wasn't real, her fear was just as real as everyone else's. She just knew how to control it. She screamed, she tried to run, she was seized from behind and stabbed in the thigh with a needle, and her vision went black, just like everyone else in the temple.

And the last thing she thought of before her world disappeared was Weiss.

* * *

 _ **Sorry this one took longer than usual. Drop a review if you liked it. Fuck the Broncos.**_


	8. Ending - Synopsis - Farewell

First off, I want to apologize to everyone for leaving this alone for so long. I've tried to sit down and write new chapters multiple times now, but I've finally come to the conclusion that I simply can't, and that it's time to move on. I simply can't write Ruby and Weiss anymore, for whatever reason. I just can't get into the characters like I used to, and writing them feels stale and off. It's a good reminder that the internet ruins everything, and that if you like a particular couple in a work of fiction, you probably shouldn't search them online very often. I won't make too many excuses for it, but I feel like I should at least give you all a synopsis of the rest of the story so you can have some closure. I realize how shitty this is to do, but believe me, if I could finish the story, I would. RWBY is just dead to me at this point. And I've seen too many authors promise to finish a story, and then just disappear completely and never come back. So I figured I'd at least try my best to given closure. Anyway, the rest of it was going to go something like this:

Ruby, after being captured, would be interrogated by the vampire coven for a while before Weiss manages to infiltrate the lair and free her. During the course of this, Weiss' vampire lord powers awaken, allowing her to fight the leader of the vampires on equal footing and win, with help from Ruby. The Imperial soldiers move in and clear the rest of the lair, and it would seem that the vampire threat was ended. But unfortunately, it's then revealed that the leader of the town nearby had joined forces with those vampires, and after secretly converting a good portion of his town to vampires as well, they ambush and slay the remaining soldiers, and force Ruby and Weiss to retreat high into the mountains to escape. They spend multiple days in the mountains, subsequently growing much closer together. Each struggling with their own feelings and internal demons though, neither of them managed to discuss these feelings. And then, they're tracked by the last remaining member of the rogue vampire hunters, and manage to barely win the fight and kill her after a desperate battle. At this point Weiss has given up, arguing that it's useless to continue fighting, as they can not win against an entire town of vampires, especially when there's no one left to fight for. Ruby argues against her, driven by her strong will and moral convictions, and eventually manages to convince Weiss after a few days of aimless survival that there are still townspeople who remain uncorrupted, and are likely being terrorized by the village leader and his new coven. She then argues that as the town is remote and the last Imperials have been slaughtered, no help is going come for them anytime soon and that it was up to them and them alone to save them. Weiss, once convinced, reluctantly agrees and they scout out the town. True to Ruby's suspicions, they find that the remaining townspeople not converted have been enslaved and made little more than human cattle to feed the new coven. Weiss and Ruby, after coming up with a plan, decide to free the remaining villagers and use their help to fight back against the coven. They rationalize that while although many will die, it's better than being slowly killed one by one in captivity. Weiss openly challenges the coven to a battle on open ground near the town as a diversion, and while she holds them off with her newfound powers, Ruby sneaks into the prison, frees, and arms the rest of the unconverted villagers. What follows is a pitched and fierce battle, which leads to all of the villagers and vampires slaughtering eachother as they set the town ablaze in their desperation, despite Ruby and Weiss' efforts to save as many as they can. The human villagers have the weight of numbers, but the vampires still completely outmatch them in speed and strength. Ruby, observing the aftermath, is struck by the horror of it all, wondering if she had truly done the right thing by arming the villagers, which in turn led them all to be killed trying to fight back. Weiss then, has the be the one to convince her it was the right thing to do, and that although they died, at least they died fighting. As they talk in the aftermath of the slaughter, however, the village leader, still alive, sneaks up behind them with his remaining conspirators and ambushes the pair. In the fight that ensues, Ruby takes a fatal wound to the chest as she lets her guard down to save Weiss from a killing blow, collapsing her lungs as Weiss duels the coven leader to the death. Weiss wins, barely, and finds Ruby taking her last gasping breaths. Ruby, fading fast, finally confesses her feelings and tells Weiss that she, despite everything and despite Weiss being a vampire, loves her. Weiss, overcome with emotions, ignores Ruby's plea to let her die in peace for her failure to save the villagers and bites her neck, beginning the process of turning her to a vampire. Weiss realizes that her actions are ultimately selfish, but she simply can't be alone without Ruby after everything that has happened. The next few days drag on with Weiss taking care of a feverish, bedridden, agonized Ruby in the remains of the burnt-out town hall as Ruby slowly turns to a vampire. But once the process is through and Ruby awakens, the newly awakened vampire is enraged and turns on Weiss with a verbal tirade, unable to accept that she is now what she has spent her whole life fighting against. Weiss, tearful, can only confess that she loves Ruby back, and she couldn't let her die and leave her alone, and that is the only reason she turned her. Ruby is momentarily stunned by still angry, and Weiss stops her enraged ranting with clumsy kiss as she cannot think of anything else to do. Ruby is shocked, and as all those buried emotions overcome her, Ruby embraces Weiss and pulls her to the ground as they finally come to terms with all of their feelings. Yes, they eventually cuddle that night when Ruby calms down.

The story more or less ends there, followed with an epilogue explaining how the two of them remain together, hunting vampires as only vampires can, using their heightened senses and powers to track down covens and eliminate them. It is hard life and they are shunned and driven from towns and cities as soon as their true nature is discovered, but they have eachother, and they are happy.

So there, that's pretty much it. Again, I apologize, as I realize how shitty this is to drop this story for so long and then end it like this. I plan to end my writing adventures on this account here, as I want to continue writing, but I want to do so writing original fiction, using my own characters and own settings. I realize now that if I truly want to be a better writer, I'll have to stop piggybacking off of others' work, I.E. writing fanfiction, and create my own worlds and my own stories. When I do so, it'll be under a different name so I can start fresh. It's been somewhat of a struggle to get my feelings about all this across, but I hope at least most of you understand. If anyone wants to know more about the story and how it ended or anything like that, you can always send me a PM. I won't be writing anymore under this account, but I'll still be checking it every now and again to respond to messages. It's been good writing here despite everything, and I hope the rest of you continue to ship Whiterose and stay strong with it.


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